


All the Time

by brownie_t



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), DCU, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Amari - Freeform, Angst and Humor, Badass, Brotp Sara/Mick, Crossover References, Darhk is an asshole, F/F, Femslash, Fluff and Angst, Killjoys reference, Legends of Tomorrow Team are Family, Nyssa and Team Legends, Nyssara, Oliver Queen Being an Asshole, POV Female Character, POV Sara Lance, Post-Crisis On Earth-X Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe - Freeform, Slow Build, Some crossover, SuperCorp, The Waverider (DC's Legends of Tomorrow), Time Travel, Time Travelling Lesbians, Work In Progress, i just love all of them, love and awkward situations, mention Oliver Queen/Nyssa al Ghul, really they're all gay, some Alex/Sara
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-02-27 08:55:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 28
Words: 64,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13244829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brownie_t/pseuds/brownie_t
Summary: Sara Lance is Captain of the Waverider. She and her team of outcasts and misfits are actually a really cool family. They are hunting down anachronisms and try to fix their mess. Set after LoT season 3, midseason finale.Original idea: Sara telling Alex Danvers that she "had a Maggie, too" and she thinks "about going back to her all the time".Welcome aboard the Waverider.P.S. Nyssa may or may not join Team Legends eventually. You'll never know unless you read this :)))P.P.S. I'll be sorry at some point because I'm really rude at some point, please forgive me for... angst...?





	1. Prologue

Sara sighed. It seemed like they always made things worse before they got to clean up their mess. Agent Sharpe had been right from the beginning, much to Sara’s disappointment. Not that she disliked the other blonde as much anymore, in fact, she had really appreciated Ava saving her from that weird other dimension. Whatever that had been about. But no amount of “she might not be a bitch after all” could take Sara's disappointment away, since it was about the principle of a random time bureau woman calling her out on her team’s weaknesses... It still didn’t sit well with Sara. The anachronisms they had decided to deal with, so far, always looked like an easy fix until something happened and a 3 became a 10, and not in a good way. Sara couldn’t remember the last day she had spent by herself, for herself, away from her team. She couldn’t remember how long ago she had last meditated properly, or just slept in, gone for a run, had a sparring session and afterwards curled up on the sofa under a blanket next to –

Sara let out another little sigh. Having met and talked to Alex Danvers a few weeks ago had brought up a lot of memories that seemed to have stuck this time, no matter hard Sara tried to push them back.

A knock at her door pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Captain, we’re all waiting for you on the bridge”, Ray Palmer beamed at her. Why was he always like this..?

“Like what?” he questioned curiously and Sara realized she had spoken aloud.

“Nothing, whatever”, she shrugged, gestured towards the hallway and followed The Atom out of her quarters.


	2. A Legend a Day...

“Oooookay, that’s a wrap, let’s get out of here before we manage to attract more bad luck, chop chop”, Sara shouted across the field, over to Amaya, who, with kangaroo kickboxing skills, had just kicked a guy so hard he landed in front of the Captain’s feet. Now, no one was left standing, as they had finally managed to push back the Russian rebels against Catherine the Great.

The original plan had been to get into the rebels’ camp by, as usual, dressing up as one of them, and capture their latest anachronism Joseph Stalin. He, unfortunately, had been plucked out of the post-war Soviet Union and, due to the Legends breaking time, suddenly found himself in the Golden Age of the Russian Empire in 1767, where he decided that this was his greatest chance to make a name for himself by becoming a Russian Emperor. They had planned to not make a fuss but simply knock him out and bring him back to 1946. In and out in a day, done. Obviously, that plan had gone south and finally, three days later, they had managed to free the Empress and get Stalin back to the Soviets.

Catherine had been more than grateful for the Legends rescuing her from her holding cell and usually, Sara wouldn’t have let the opportunity pass to show a woman some appreciation for said gratefulness. The 38 year-old looked like she was in her best years, was a figure of power who knew what she wanted, had a sharp intellect, and just as sharp cheekbones, but sadly, she reminded Sara of someone else.

Right now, Sara felt like nothing was more important than the taste of scotch on her tongue and some deep, dreamless sleep. They fell back to the Waverider and Gideon had them out of time and space in the temporal zone in no time.

“Well, that was kinda cool.” Ray was his usual, positive self and when Nate agreed that “meeting the greatest Russian Empress in person and saving her from Stalin was mind-blowing”, Sara groaned internally. She would obviously die for her team but that didn’t keep her from wanting to punch certain team members in the face sometimes.

“Meet you on the bridge in fifteen”, she muttered towards nobody specific and made her way from the cargo bay to the galley. She wasn’t surprised to see Mick had already beaten her to it, as he just closed the cupboard next to the fridge. He wordlessly handed her the bottle of scotch before he let himself fall onto one of the plastic chairs, a beer in his hand, propping his feet up against the table. They had formed an unusual but efficient companionship over the last few months. Sometimes - a lot of times lately - Mick was the only person Sara actually liked being around. He didn’t pretend to care and she didn’t pretend to care or not to care, depending on the situation. They just enjoyed each other’s company in silence, sipping their respective drinks (Mick usually had beer and Sara chose from a variety of stronger liquids) and usually, after a while, one of them would get up and leave with the words “Good talk”. Not so today.

Sara was surprised to hear Mick’s deep, rasping voice behind her when she poured herself the second glass, this time to enjoy it rather than for it to take the edge off. Confused, she looked up at him.

“Sorry, what?”

“Ahh, nothing, never mind”, he brushed off, waving his hand.

“No, I didn’t mean to ignore you”, Sara insisted and lifted her eyebrows signalling him to repeat his question.

“I’m not good with this stuff”, Mick mumbled and stared at his bottle. Oh boy, what was this about? Sara felt irritation rising in her stomach.

“Ya know, don’t try to talk to me about whatever you’re washing down with that –“ he gestured over to the general direction of the liquor cabinet, “– but if you want me to… buuuurn someone or something… I’d be up for the job, boss”, Mick rasped and downed the last of his beer.

Sara blinked once, twice, and then couldn’t help but show him a small grin and an appreciative nod.

“Okay… good talk”, Mick exclaimed, set his empty bottle on the table, got up and left the galley.

The Captain shook her head in confusion. She needed to get her mindset straight if even Mick felt like he needed to say something about her manner. Sara chuckled softly to herself. She needed to get her mind more focused, that was a better way to put it. And she definitely needed some sleep.

The blonde pursed her lips, then got up, poured the rest of the golden liquid into the sink and decided to wash the glass by hand and store it away again. She didn’t know why exactly, but Sara felt like the oddly normal motion of cleaning the glass, soap on her hands and warm water running over them, was weirdly soothing and she mentally pinned a note to her corkboard saying _Do normal stuff that normal people do._ Then, Sara took a deep breath, searched her mind for a normal, a happy memory that didn’t leave a sad, bitter, lonely or angry aftertaste, and ended up with the sound of someone falling out of the bed and the muffled “shit, ouch” in her ear that was the result of Alex trying to leave unnoticed the morning after the rehearsal dinner. That was normal. A normal memory that normal people made. Getting drunk and having needs and forgetting the sadness and having fun and being awkward the next day. Sara smiled to herself and walked through her ship’s hallways to join the rest of the team for a concluding meeting on the mission. She could do normal. She just had to try a bit harder.


	3. Easier Said than Done

_“I won’t leave you in here!”_

_“If you love me, you will. If you love me, you are going to leave this place far behind and live a life unburdened by your past.”_

_“That’s easier said than done.”_

_“Anything worth doing always is.”_

Sara shot up, heart clenching in her chest. The assassin pulled in a deep breath. It had seemed so real. She could physically feel the pain that leaving the brunette's presence caused her. It had been a while since that particular memory had haunted her in her dreams. And even longer since it felt this… close. Sara shuddered and fell back into her pillow.

Apparently it was still night time, the screens in her bunk showed black skies and some stars blinked in the darkness. The Legends had realized that being in the temporal zone screwed with their biorhythms and sleeping schedules soon after starting their mission. When it doesn’t get dark or bright and you don’t stick to the same time period, let alone time zone, your body might get confused every once in a while. Hence, Jax had come up with the idea to put large screens up besides the sleeping areas and have them show day and night in a regular rhythm. One could choose which part of the earth one wanted to see and the images were all programmed into the same sunrise and sunset time schedule, independent from which time zone said place was located in. The screens had some more functions that Sara didn’t really care about but she was glad about being able to watch the stars or the sunrise over the mountains. Right now, Sara could watch the Milky Way glowing and twinkling above some mountain ridges in the Himalayas, and far, far away in the distance, a faint lighter colour slowly spread across the sky. Funny, how not the skyline of Star City, the city she grew up in, was what she liked to see first and last every day. Interesting, how she hadn’t chosen some tropical island paradise, like Mick, or a veldt in Africa with herds of elephants and zebras roaming the landscape, like Amaya, although she appreciated its beauty. She had chosen the only place where she had ever really felt at peace - even though she ran from it, all those years ago. To be fair, it wasn’t that the location of Nanda Parbat didn’t scream ‘beautiful’, because it did. Sara had felt more grounded, more centred and peaceful during her sunrise meditation sessions than she had ever felt before or ever again afterwards. Feeling ‘one’ with all of her surroundings, breathing easy and noticing how everything was in flux, how the winds changed and the colours brightened, how the light first hit her placid face and finally illuminated and warmed all of her, sitting cross-legged on the stony ground – there was nothing as centring and strengthening as that.

Sara sighed and burrowed her face in the crease of her elbow after draping her right arm across her eyes. Her heartbeat had returned to her normal, calm 58 beats per minute pulse at rest due to her deliberate focus on the memory of meditating. Still, there was a glimmer of shame gnawing on her conscience, knowing that she, in fact, had turned around and left the brunette woman in her dream behind in the cell, walking off to try and live a life unburdened by her past. Again. And again, it hadn’t worked.

How was she supposed not to honour a wish that included the phrase “if you love me...”? How was she supposed to honour a wish that included the phrase “leave this place far behind...” if it directly contradicted her love and what she felt was the right thing to do? How was she supposed to do this _right_ without feeling bad? How was she supposed to live a life unburdened by her past if she was exactly who her past had made her and how was she supposed to let things go without even knowing if...

Sara groaned under her arm and then let it fall back onto the mattress next to her body. She’d probably never know if the woman from her dream was even still alive. From all the (very limited) information she could get out of Oliver Queen, who hadn’t seemed too keen on talking about the former Heir to the Demon, she had gotten out of the dungeon eventually, but no one had seen her since. At least that was what he had said. But it had been many months since that, as at the West-Allen wedding weekend, there had been no time to talk privately due to some minor disturbances - maybe she should just ask him the next time they would meet...

Grumbling to herself, the Captain decided it was no use dwelling on the past and her dream for now, just as it was no good to try and go back to sleep, since she would only be grumpier once she actually had to get up. Sara sat up, pushed back the blanket and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. She rolled her head from one side to the other, her hand on her neck, trying to knead out the stiffness, and finally cracked a vertebra back into its place. Better. In a sudden impulse, Sara fixed her sheets before she left her quarters for the captain's area. Small, normal things, it was.

 

After getting herself a cup of green tea in the galley, Sara spent the next few hours in a comfortable chair in her area by the bridge, reading a historical novel about some monks in Tibet. So much for not dwelling on the past. She numbly registered that a certain assassin would surely like this one. Maybe she had even read it already. She really should. Sara shook her head as if to shake out the thought and closed the book. Then, she rose from her chair, put the book back into a shelf and walked over to the AI panel where she greeted Gideon good morning and had her open the anachronism map.

"Right away, Captain", Gideon obliged and the holographic, interactive visualization appeared. “Is there anything else I can do for you right now, Captain? I registered troubling dreams last night.”

Of course, Gideon monitored their dreams, Sara had kind of forgotten about that again. She briefly considered asking Gideon for information on the woman from her dream but then decided against it, quietly shaking her head.

“Thanks, Gideon, that’ll be all for now.”

Looking at the map, Sara groaned. They had been working non-stop and she knew the time-bureau was on the matter, too, and yet, there were still plenty of anachronisms strewn about all across the map and throughout time and space. She scrolled through the smaller and bigger dots and circles and decided that her team was better off with lower numbers - if they screwed up, at least it wouldn't turn out to be the third world war again.

"Morning!" Ray chimed behind her, adding "Oh, are we going to do something exciting? We could take that 9 over there, Paris is interesting."

Sara rolled her eyes. "Morning, Ray. Glad to see you're as chipper as usual."

Ray shrugged and bounced on his heels. "I'm gonna get some coffee, do you want some?"

"Not that you'd need it anyway..." Sara muttered but nodded. “But yeah, sure, I could use some.”

"Oh, someone didn't sleep well"

"Shut up, Ray."

Fortunately, he did.

 

Finally, everyone had stumbled out of their quarters; Zari was the last one, following a stoic Mick onto the bridge, still clutching a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, her whole demeanour agreeing with the phrase printed on the cup, saying _Don't talk to me until I finished this coffee_. Sara bit back a grin and started talking anyway.

"Good morning boys and girls, another bright day is lying ahead of us -", confusion was written over every single face she looked into. Sadly, instead of seven faces, only five people looked back at her. They had lost a lot in the past month. She dropped the act and turned serious.

"Look, I know we all deserve a break and want to sleep in and we’re all trying to cope with… everything. But unfortunately, we broke time. And it's our responsibility to clean up our mess. Which we'll do. Every day until we get this under control."

"We're on a timeship. What does it matter if we start an hour later..? We can go back in time..." Mick made a point and the other four nodded their heads in agreement. He opened his arms in a "just saying"-motion.

Sara sighed. "I know, guys. Seriously, though, it's 9am. You'll survive. Moving on: I found us a new mission. Much to Ray's disappointment, we will not deal with a 9 today, because if we screw that up we might ruin the world." There was a huff from Palmer's direction but Sara just went on talking over it. "Instead, I have a nice 4 over here in New York City, 2035 - who's up for a ride to the big apple in the future?"

"Wait. Are we supposed to go to the future? Your future, that is?" Zari asked, pinching her eyebrows together, and Nate added: "I thought anachronisms were scattered throughout history."

Sara pursed her lips. "I don't know what's up with this one. Guess, it's history in 2036. Anyway. It shows up on the map and it's not too far in the future and I feel oddly optimistic about this. Also... I've travelled a lot of places but unfortunately, I have never been to New York."

There was an outstretched silence, one which Professor Stein usually would have filled with an excited comment on the significance of Broadway and how interesting it would be to see, whether, a few years into the future the world would still celebrate theatre and musicals. Sadly, instead, there was just silence. Amaya cleared her throat and shrugged. She'd be up for a trip to the future. Everyone agreed more or less excited and Sara uncrossed her arms.

"Good. That's settled then. Let's buckle up and go see what happened to the future."

 


	4. Just Another Day At the Office

“So, Sara, since we have a few spaces open... can we talk about trying to get someone else on the team..? We’re not really equipped to deal with major incidents anymore...”

Nate tried to make conversation as the two of them were entering the big company building they had located the anachronism in. They were waved through a security check, both lifting their arms up while being scanned for metal. Sara’s belt buckle, or rather: the throwing star integrated into the buckle, caused a beeping and she smiled apologetically at the tall, dark-haired security guy, batting her eye lashes for emphasis as she loosened her belt and held it out to him. Sara had refused steadfastly to go into an unknown building unarmed. The security guard’s cheeks flushed, he ignored the belt and simply scanned her again. This time, no sound was audible. They had hoped for this outcome. Nate rolled his eyes at Sara’s non-verbal exchange with the visibly flustered man and waited for her behind the check point. Flashing one of her dimpled smiles at the guard, Sara put the belt back on decidedly slow, reacting to how his gaze flickered down to her hips and he swallowed visibly, and then averted her gaze and continued her way, rejoining her team mate. Her expression had already returned to her usual unfazed exterior and she picked up her speed to a busy, determined stride like nothing had happened.

Nate hurried to keep up with Sara. “Well played”, he mumbled and then added, a little louder: “Boss, about that question...”

“Nathaniel, can we talk about this sometime else and focus on the mission now?” Sara didn’t bother looking at him.

It wasn’t a request and Nate understood - which didn’t keep him from muttering under his breath: “Let’s just hope we won’t have any trouble with the ship until we have a new mechanic...”

Sara stopped dead in her tracks and turned to him, a hand on his arm, firm but not painful, and a cold expression on her face.

“I told you politely to shut up, Nate. We have something else to worry about right now. Stay focused. We’re down two men and we can’t risk screwing up because our heads aren’t in the game. I will deal with our team issues when I have the time for it.”

Without waiting for a response she walked on, knowing Nate would follow suit.

“We’re in position, Captain. So far, everything seems oddly normal, considering we’re in the future”, Ray’s voice crackled in Sara’s ear piece. As long as they didn’t know who or what the anachronism was, this was a strict information-gathering mission. Everyone had orders to stand down and be aware of their surroundings without engaging in any activity endangering their covers.

“All right, everybody, keep your eyes and ears open, I want info as soon as there’s anything suspicious. Nate and I are almost at our assigned desks. Remember. No screw-up this time. Let’s keep this a level 4.”

Just that moment, the hallway opened into a big, open office room with about 30 workstations, each equipped with a desk, a computer and shelves, all but two already in use. Sara nodded towards Nate and put on her best “I’m new here and I have no idea where I need to go” face. He was on his own for now. Walking over to the closest desk, she cleared her throat. The bald guy in his fifties looked up and after a second of confusion, his expression changed into a warm, helpful one.

“Ah. You must be the new Professional Services Assistant, Miss...?”

“Stein, Laurel Stein”, Sara smiled and offered her counterpart a hand, the name already so deeply embedded in her cover that she didn’t have to hesitate even a split-second.

“Right, wonderful, nice to meet you.” He shook her hand and added: “My name is Roger Lindman. We’re not going to work too much together, I’m afraid, but I’ll gladly show you around today and you can ask me whatever you’d like to know.” He gestured Sara to follow him and, pleasantly surprised, Sara noticed how his eyes had not once left her face and how he seemed genuinely open and helpful. Huh. Maybe, men in the future might have learnt from past mistakes...

“Umm, the first thing I’d like to know is... do I call you Mr. Lindman or Roger..?” Sara let out a little chuckle and her new colleague turned around and smiled.

“Well, if you like, you can call me Roger, but in this company, we usually go by our last names, since it’s supposed to stay a strictly professional environment”, he explained and Sara  lifted her eyebrows. Maybe the future wasn’t too bad, after all.

“Okay, great, thank you Mr. Lindman, I like professionalism.” Sara flashed a smile and they continued their tour.

 

By lunchtime, they had concluded their round and nothing extraordinary had happened.

"Thank you for showing me around, that was really nice of you. Nice and professional. You see, Mr. Lindman, my former employer had very strict rules about professional work place relations and I came to appreciate that over the years." Sara got back to their conversation from before, aiming to slowly push the conversation into a direction from which she could ask if anything weird or out of the ordinary had happened over the past weeks.

Lindman stopped that train of thoughts by asking: "Where did you work before you got here, if I may ask..?" He seemed to be genuinely interested.

"Oh, I don't know if you've heard of them, but it's a company called Smoak Technologies."

The lie fell easy from her lips. For a brief moment, when Lindman's eyes widened in surprise, she wondered if in this century, Smoak Technologies had some kind of difficulties or something. They knew the company would probably still exist ten years further into the future, so Sara had guessed it was a safe bet. The thought that the company might still be called Palmer Technologies crossed her mind. The future could always change... The sudden tension drained from her body when Lindman's voice was filled with awe as he responded.

"Have I heard of them? I'm guessing you're joking because I'm sure the PSA knows that Smoak Technologies is our biggest competition, the biggest tech company in the state and employer of 20% of all working people in New York City..."

He trailed off and Sara cracked a flashing grin, pretending to of course be joking. Lindman laughed and added that he would like to know why a powerful, independent business woman would ever switch teams and go to the smaller competition company. Sara bit back a smile and was about to make up an interesting back story for herself when someone behind her cleared their throat.

"Excuse me, umm, sorry to interrupt, but some guys over there said I should take my lunch break but I'm not sure where to go, and I was wondering… I'm new here, you know..."

Nate stood awkwardly behind them, thick, black glasses almost sliding off his nose, the tie obviously hastily fastened and his hair combed over to both sides of his head. He was the perfect uncoordinated and stereotypical new IT guy. Slightly strange and yet weirdly likeable.

Lindman's posture changed and Sara raised an eyebrow at Nate.

"Rough first day, ..." she looked at his name tag, "Barry Jackson?"

Nate flushed and Sara was sure it was because of her pointed pronunciation of his name. Lindman probably thought it was because of Sara’s forwardness or just because Barry Jackson was a new guy.

"Laurel Stein, nice to meet you”, she offered him a hand. “It's my first day, too, actually", Sara continued and then turned to Lindman. "But Mr. Lindman here was so nice to show me around. I could show you the break room if you wanted…”

Nate nodded, relief showing on his face and it seemed genuine. Huh. Had something happened? He should have told her over the coms…

“That would be great, thank you so much, S - Miss Stein.”

Sara looked at Lindman and thanked him for his time, adding: “If I have any other questions, I will just stop by at your desk, if that’s alright..?”

The older man seemed a bit more distant now, his expression wary, as he was eyeing Nate with suspicion, who in return attempted a half smile without being too forward.

Finally, their new co-worker shrugged and said: “I’m just going to take my break, too. Follow me, Mister Jackson.” He motioned them to follow him.

Damn.

Their lunch break turned into some very weird form of interview. Lindman had an awful lot of technical questions for Nate. Thanks to the ear piece and Ray in his ear, Nate was able to answer a lot of his questions without breaking into sweat. When she felt like this was borderline harassment, Sara finally set an end to the interrogation.

“Mr. Lindman, leave the poor man be”, she laughed. “What, do you think he’s a spy or something?”

The man rubbed his bald head and then shrugged. “You can never be too careful.”

Nate looked horrified. How had he blown his cover this fast? Sara smiled at him, her eyes cold and serious.

“Well, I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him. But you shouldn’t worry about it. Also I think the competition would probably send someone who knows the dress-code”, she quipped and gradually, Mr. Lindman relaxed.

Nate just looked at Sara with wide eyes. She rose from her seat, walked around the table and gestured for Nate to stand, which he quickly did. With mock disbelief, Sara looked him over and then reached for his tie, fixing it. She could swear that when her hands moved closer to Nate’s neck, he gulped with a sudden hint of fear in his eyes.

“Relax”, she laughed, still keeping up her cover but making herself clear nonetheless. “I’m not going to kill you, Mr. Jackson. Just teaching you appropriate attire.”

Nate visibly relaxed and they heard a low chuckle coming from Roger Lindman, who was still seated at the table.

“It seems, Mr. Jackson isn’t used to a hot woman being this close to him, although his initials spell BJ”, he joked and Sara internally groaned. He had done so well so far. What a disappointment. She turned around to look at him, a distant expression on her face.

“Well now, can we keep this professional..?”

“I’m sorry. Of course. That was uncalled for.” Huh. There was something weird about this guy.

“Hm.”, Sara gave him a once-over and then softened her expression. “I think we can let this one slide, right, Mr. Jackson? It’s time to go back to work, anyway.”

They packed up their lunch packages and Sara excused herself to the bathroom on their way back. She made sure she was the only one in there and then opened a direct connection to Nate’s com.

“What the hell is going on, Nate?! You almost blew your cover! For what?”

“Well, it was… uh… nice meeting you, Mr. Lindman, I’ll take a left here and get back to my IT department”, Nate’s voice was strained.

After a few seconds, Nate’s voice was clearer in Sara’s ear.

“I’m so sorry, Captain, I just, I am not good with IT stuff and everyone keeps asking me things I’ve never heard before and I’m just … I needed to see a friendly face.”

Sara’s face was not friendly in the least. It was irritated. Was he being serious?

“Honestly, why couldn’t Ray pretend to be the IT guy? He’s telling me what to say anyway…”

Sara snapped. “Because Ray is pretty much the founder of the biggest American tech company of this century and it would look highly suspicious if someone carrying the presumably dead younger Ray’s face would just waltz in here and pretend to work as an intern for the fricking competition, Nate”, she hissed. “If there’s nothing important, I’ll have you get back to do your damn job now. Stop complaining about my decisions.”

Sara cut the line and willed herself to calm down. The whole team was on edge. It was okay, normal. They had lost friends. Martin Stein had died, Jax had left to deal with that and even Leo Snart had decided to go home to his boyfriend on Earth X after their last mission. It was okay that they were all just trying to cope. Nothing bad had happened just now and they still had the mission under control. She looked into the big mirror above the sinks and pushed a thin strand of hair, which had managed to free itself from her tight, high ponytail, back behind her ear. Her crystal blue eyes looked back at her with exhaustion and she was pale in the bright, artificial light illuminating the washroom. Sara gave herself ten seconds to breathe, before she fixed her light blue blouse under her black tailored suit, plastered a smile on her face and walked out of the washroom.


	5. The Boss

After a while, Ray notified her that they had checked the perimeter on the ground, that Zari was still seated in the coffee shop across the street keeping an eye on the building’s main entrance and that he had flown through as many rooms of the building as he could. Amaya and Mick were also still in position, working as substitutes for two security guards they had knocked out in the morning, and just in general, the team still had no idea what the anachronism could be, because apparently, it wasn’t anything as obvious as a blue God of War or a giant sable tooth tiger.

Sara sighed at her desk, staring at her screen, pretending to read some documents full of tables with numbers and letters that made no sense to her. They hadn’t made it worse, yet, but they weren’t any closer to their goal either.

“Mayday, boss, I think I have a problem here”, Nate was trying to suppress a hint of panic in his voice.

Suddenly, Sara was wide awake. “What’s wrong? And don’t tell me you need to see a friendly face.”

“Someone just said our new boss wants to see me and I’m supposed to…”

Sara didn’t hear the end of it, because someone was tapping her on her shoulder from behind. It took everything for her not to jump and fall into defensive stance or attack that person right then and there and she half-noticed how, automatically, her hand twitched in the direction of her belt buckle. Instead, she consciously spun her chair around and looked surprised when her gaze wandered up from black pants over a black jacket on top of a black shirt with a black tie. A dark-skinned, bearded, tall guy with broad shoulders was standing in front of her, dressed appropriately for a funeral but certainly a little too black in black for work. Sara tilted her head and looked into intense green eyes under bushy brows. Something about them seemed familiar although she was sure she had never seen his face before. Maybe it was the stern determination glowing in them. She had counted a gun on each side in a holster under the man’s suit jacket, one smaller one strapped to his calf, she could see a small bulge in the right leg of his pants that betrayed him, and she was sure that a knife was strapped to the back of his pants, right below his belt. A bodyguard, maybe even a private military contractor of some sort.

“Uh… yes..?” Sara acted intimidated.

“Boss wants to see you”, he said and marched off. Sara made sure to look like she was confused and afraid when she quickly followed the man, stumbling over her own feet to add more emphasis on her innocence.

_Shit, shit, shit._ What had happened? Were their covers blown? Not that Sara necessarily minded that but she preferred blowing her cover herself. She didn’t like not being in control of a situation. Being hyper aware of her surroundings, Sara memorized every door leading to a staircase or outside onto a rooftop terrace, in case anything would go wrong. Apparently, this building had multiple rooftop terraces. The team had checked the blue prints before and had been intrigued by the architecture of this complex. A door to a staircase opened at the end of the hallway they were walking through and another man, also completely dressed in black, stepped into the hallway. Sara clenched her teeth, keeping her posture. Being outnumbered wasn’t necessarily a problem but it might get messy and would for sure draw attention to her. When Nate followed the second man in black and joined her, Sara both was relieved and noticed how her mode switched from ‘aware’ to ‘protective’. Nate might have annoyed her but she protected her team. Not that they could really do anything to him when he turned into steel but still, she could smell fear on him. Sara managed to touch the com in her ear and opened communication with the rest of the team. Then, she cleared her throat asking loud and clear:

“Excuse me, sirs, where exactly are we going? And why are we running? Did we do something wrong?”

They didn’t slow down and the guy that had fetched Sara just repeated dryly: “Boss wants to see you.”

Nate jumped in, showing the team that he and Sara were in this situation together. “And why does… the boss want to see us?”

They could hear Mick rasp “Finally, something happens” at the same time that Ray mumbled “oh no…” and Zari called out “Check please”. Amaya added “Standing by” to the mix and Sara felt a little relieved that her team seemed fine. Maybe their covers weren’t completely blown, yet.

They came to halt in front of an elevator and three seconds later the doors opened with a light “ding”. The men in black let Nate and Sara walk in first and stepped into the elevator after them, their backs towards them. Sara could see Nate clench his fist and lightly touched his forearm. Apparently, these guys didn’t think of them as a threat, otherwise, they wouldn’t have turned their backs on them. Nate relaxed his hand and seconds later, the elevator doors opened again. A left, two right and another left turn later, the men in black signalled them to stop and the one that had escorted Nate ordered: “Wait here.” He knocked on a big milky glass door and opened it shortly after, stepping inside.

A few moments later, he came back out, repeated: “Wait here”, and, pointing at a lamp at the wall, added: “When the light turns off, go through the door and follow the hall. The boss knows you’re waiting.”

He motioned his partner to follow him and they positioned themselves at the closest corner of the hallway they had just walked through. Definitely a highly trained security detail.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Sara whispered: “Guys, stand down until I give you a sign. This is really weird but so far, I don’t see us threatened. Ray, we’re in the North-East part of the building, 19th floor. The bureau we’re about to walk into should be located in the corner and have two sides of window fronts. Can you fly up and take a look inside? I don’t like walking in blind.”

“Sure thing, Captain, I’m on it.”

A few moments later, Ray talked again. “I don’t have a clear view, the windows are like one way mirrors… But my suit detects only one heat signature in the room, the two of you should be fine.”

“As long as it isn’t Damien Darhk”, Amaya commented, worry in her voice. Sara knew it wasn’t directed towards her.

“Darhk wouldn’t be a level 4. And if he was, I’d happily kill the bastard and send him right back to his grave”, Sara whispered.

“It’s not Darhk”, Ray interrupted their back and forth. “According to the heat signature, the person in the bureau is a woman.”

“Maybe Nora…” Nate wondered but then corrected himself. “Nah, Mick and Leo got her pretty good back there with the Vikings…”

“It’s okay, guys, we’ll be fine. Just stand by”, Sara said at the exact moment the light above their heads turned off and Sara’s stomach dropped. She didn’t even know why. She had gone into missions much blinder than now, on her own, she always had been fine. Well, except for those times she died. But she had never felt… nervous like this. Maybe it was because she couldn’t afford to lose anyone else on her team. She nodded towards Nate and walked over to the door signalling him to stay behind her. Better. She knew, no one could jump her from behind, Nate was bulletproof and she had her right hand on her belt buckle, eyes scanning the hallway for movements, on high alert. Nothing looked out of place and they walked on. A few meters ahead, they could hear a voice talking to someone but no one answered. They seemed to be on the phone. With every step the conversation got clearer.

“… Yes. … I assure you, I am fully aware of the difficulties you are facing over this deal. … Yes. I have to attend other matters now. I will call you again tomorrow.”

Sara froze on the spot and Nate bumped into her from behind, causing her to stumble into the room. The Captain managed to regain control over her stance in the last moment before she totally lost her balance and silenced Nate’s “What the –” with a small wave of her hand.

The person in the room had her phone still in hand and was looking out of the window. She was dressed in nice black suit pants and a white blouse, no jacket on top. Sara disbelievingly shook her head. Tears sprung to her eyes and she couldn’t do anything about it. She knew that voice. She’d recognize it in a sea of a thousand voices, any time, no matter how long ago she had heard it last. There was no doubt that the lean body in the fitted suit belonged to...

“Nyssa”, Sara breathed and watched the woman go rigid before slowly turning around, the same stunned expression on her face she was wearing all that time ago in the dungeon.

“Impossible”, she rasped, her dark brown eyes wide, exactly like in Sara’s memory.

Time seemed to be standing still as both women locked gazes, dark brown connecting with clear blue, darkness of the night and the light of the stars united in a perfect whirl of time and space, as endless as the multiverse, when tears of overwhelming happiness and surprise spilled free from both their eyes and they slowly moved towards each other until they were mere five feet from one another. Both crossed the distance at the same time causing them to crash into a desperate embrace, barely holding it together but holding onto the other woman for dear life.

Apparently, they had found the anachronism.


	6. Catching Up

They were seated at a conference table. The space between them was too big and it felt to Sara as if it was growing with every second they were seated.

 

Nate had cleared his throat after a long while that the two women had been standing in their embrace and for the fourth time that day, Sara had wanted to punch him. But she had understood how all of this could seem very weird to someone from the outside.

_“Umm... everything alright in there..? Looks pretty heated, but... not in a bad way, I guess..?”_

_Ray. Sara clenched her jaw. She loosened her grip on Nyssa, just not letting her go completely._

_“Excuse me...” She muttered and spoke up. “All good, everyone stand down, go back to the ship, this mission is cancelled, I’ll meet you later.”_

_Protests rose and everyone was talking at the same time, asking what was going on, respectively asking if they could still burn the building to the ground._

_“Enough. Fall back to the ship. Sleep, drink, play, do whatever you want until I get back. That’s an order. And no, Mick, you cannot burn the building to the ground. We’re still inside.”_

_She turned around to Nate, jerking her head in the direction of the hallway they came through._

_“But, Sara –“_

_“No, Nate. Enough with this.” Her voice had turned icy. “If you can’t follow my orders you’ll have to find yourself another team. I’m sick of having to justify my decisions for you. Get back to the ship. Now. All of you.”_

_Nyssa lifted an eyebrow and Sara could see a way too familiar spark in them, an intrigued grin tucking at the corners of her mouth, causing Sara’s stomach to flutter._

_“Yup, I’ve seen enough heat for today - Ray out.”_

_Sara closed her eyes, half in embarrassment, half in annoyance. There was a bit of mumbling but Sara just took out her com._

_Nate left with the words “See you later, Captain” and Sara sighed and put her focus back on the brunette in front of her._

_“Sorry about that.” She let her hands slide down Nyssa’s arms and felt her senses tingle as if electric current was running through her when she laced their fingers together._

_“No problem at all – I only heard half of the conversation but what I heard was quite pleasant”, Nyssa assured her._

_Sara blushed tucking at Nyssa’s hand. “Hey, don’t do that...”_

_“My apologies.  I am just happy to see you, my love, I still cannot believe my eyes...”_

_Sara shook her head, looking down at their joined hands. She bit her lip, not daring to look into Nyssa’s eyes. “You know I don’t usually mind those comments but...”_

_The brunette gently placed her free hand at Sara’s face, cupping her cheek and softly urging her to look up. Sara shivered slightly at the touch. When their eyes locked again, Sara could see the spark from before was gone, replaced by warmth and depth and trust and wonder. They didn’t need to say anything else, it was okay._

_“How are you here?”, they both asked at the same time and a soft chuckle fell from Sara’s lips._

_“Some things don’t change, it seems”, she quipped._

_“Most things do...” Nyssa retorted and gestured over to a table that had room for eight people. “Let us sit. It has been so long since we last... talked.”_

 

And here they were, seated at said table.

“How long has it been for you..?” Sara asked timidly, adding “You still look like you, not much older...”

Nyssa sighed and gave her a sad smile. “Since I last saw you? Three years, nine months and eleven days. But who is counting..? When you visited me in Nanda Parbat...”

“You mean, when I left you to die..?” Sara interjected, bitterness and shame dripping from her voice, feeling terrible, as her brain briefly replayed the scene she had dreamed of the night before. Nyssa had always had an affinity for numbers, but this was just sad. And it was all Sara’s fault.

Nyssa furrowed her brow and shook her head. “When I asked you to leave me, and you did, I knew you still loved me. It was the only thing that mattered to me. It kept me sane throughout the following months. Of course, that does not equal that your feelings for me haven’t changed, it has been a while...” She trailed off.

Sara swallowed hard, not being able to say anything about what she was feeling for the time being. She was feeling overwhelmed and very confused. And happy and sad at the same time. Instead of replying anything, she resolved to ask: “You still spent months in there after we last saw each other..?”

The assassin nodded. “It appears no one else even noticed I was gone. I assume nobody needed my help.”

She said it without any emotion showing on her face but Sara could see the hurt in Nyssa’s eyes. The same way Nyssa had always been able to read Sara’s expressions, the blonde had learned to see what was hidden underneath the unfazed exterior of brunette. At some point, they had gotten to just not trying to hide anymore. Realizing that, in this case, she decided to put her walls up in front of her again made Sara mad.

“Believe me, I’m going to punch Ollie in the face for mistreating you like that. The whole him taking your place in the League was already bad enough but also just using you as long as he needed your help...” She shook her head. “He told me you were safe the last time we met – he failed to mention that you had been left to rot in that hole for months.” She was angry.

Nyssa smiled, finally crossed the distance between them and took Sara’s trembling hand between her own, her touch soft but reassuring.

“I’m okay, Love.”

Sara clenched her jaw, feeling anything but relieved. She gritted her teeth and pressed: “Have you seen him since..?”

Nyssa’s eyebrow jerked up. “Oh... yeah. I have”, she sounded bitter, “I mean. Our marriage wasn’t exactly blessed –“

“ – wait what?”

Nyssa looked confused about her interjection. Sara didn’t say anything else. She just stared at Nyssa, certain she misheard.

After a while Nyssa’s face fell. “He failed to mention that, too, I assume.”

Sara was dumbstruck. _What?_ She pulled her hand away from Nyssa and dropped it into her lap. Sara felt a piercing pain in her heart, betrayal, jealousy, hurt and fear all blended together. Her emotions obviously made their way into her face.

“Sara...” Nyssa looked at her with pleading eyes. “It was my father’s idea and believe me if I tell you we were both more than unhappy with his decision. Mr. Queen killed him for it.”

The muscles in Sara’s jaw worked. She shook her head. How could she only hear about this now? What else did she not know? She had known Ra’s was dead and that Nyssa had disbanded the League, although she had never fully understood what that had been about because leading the League had always been what Nyssa wanted, but... _married??_

“So... you and Oliver..? That’s... shit... I mean. Ra’s... But… There were no... feelings...”, Sara stammered and found herself sounding stupid. She wasn’t one to babble incoherent things. And yet, Sara couldn’t find the right words at the moment. Nyssa blinked. Once, twice, as if she was processing the statement. Sara hurried to say that it wasn’t her intention to judge Nyssa for possibly having feelings for someone other than her. For all she could have known they were never going to meet again and especially with Sara’s own history with Oliver, it wasn’t her place to judge – but Nyssa cut her off with a whole-hearted laugh. Oh boy, Sara had missed that sound.

“By the Spirits, are you honestly asking me if I had feelings for Mr. Queen? No, Sara, Love, no, I did not. Except for contempt and hatred probably. And by the end of that story I could appreciate him as a fighter. But that is as much as there is to say about our bond. I told you, our marriage didn’t go well.”

Sara felt weirdly relieved by Nyssa’s explanation. She knew she didn’t have any say in whom Nyssa shared her life with, as she herself was the one who walked away, multiple times. But the thought of her... _her_ Nyssa and... her ex boyfriend... ugh. Sara shivered.

“Don’t go there, Love. We did not.” Nyssa knew exactly what had just flashed before Sara’s inner eye.

“Ahhh, okay good and now I never want to think about that ever again”, Sara pressed the heels of her hands onto her eyes as if it could erase the image burnt into her brain cells.

“Sara... You know I am not interested in men that way.” Nyssa’s voice was soft and there was still a hint of a smile in it.

“Yeah, which makes this whole thing even more fucked up. Come on, Ra’s wouldn’t have made you marry Oliver if he hadn’t wanted a new Heir to the Demon out of that bond and I – damn, I wanna kill him myself for that. Good for him he is already dead.” She realized what she had just said and her stomach dropped. Looking shocked at her own statement, she apologized. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive...”

Nyssa shook her head with a bitter smile. “It’s alright. I was actually mad at Mr. Queen for taking away my possibility to kill my father. I understand your anger. And there is still so much you do not know...”

Sara chewed at her bottom lip. “Just to get this straight: When exactly was that? Are you two still married? Is Oliver married to two women now? And when did you see him last?”

Nyssa laughed softly. “You have a lot of questions, Beloved. Why don’t we go somewhere nice to catch up? I’ve been here for a few weeks; I found some beautiful places above the rooftops of this city.”

The blonde didn’t even register the second part of Nyssa’s words and groaned: “Oh my gosh, you are still married.”

Sara buried her face in her hands. Why was this so weird?

“Well, I’m pretty sure he considers our marriage annulled, since he blew me up. Did he marry Ms. Sm – “

“He did what?!” Sara’s head shot up shock. Next time she’d cross paths with her ex, she would most definitely kick his ass.

The brunette assassin sighed. “I told you, there is a lot you do not know, yet. I’m afraid it will take a while for us to catch up. May I ask you one question now?”

Sara blinked; she hadn’t even realized how much she had questioned Nyssa. “Sorry, sure.” She hoped this wouldn’t be about any of her private encounters. That was a story for another time.

“How are we here, in 2035, New York City?”

Ah. Well. That question made sense. Sara looked over to her apologetically.

“Err... we broke time because I decided to work together with my not so much younger past self to save one of my teammates and the world...”

Nyssa looked at her with a stunned expression, eyebrows raised slightly, and nodded slowly, trying to grasp what Sara was trying to explain.

“And then objects, people, animals... from different times and places got scattered throughout history. We call those ‘anachronisms’. You seem to be one of those anachronisms. Although it’s weird you were thrown into the future.” She paused to look at Nyssa, and seeing that she was listening closely, she continued the explanation. “We’ve already dealt with Helena of Troy, some Vikings, dinosaurs, a sable tooth tiger, Catherine the Great, a giant telepathic gorilla and some other really weird things. But you are by far the most interesting one for me, yet.” She smiled. “It’s good to see you, Nyssa. Although I am sorry I threw you through time and space.”

“You... met a sable tooth tiger and dinosaurs?” Nyssa looked a bit pale, her mind too preoccupied with the new information to notice Sara’s warm gaze.

Sara shrugged and let out an affirming hum.

“When exactly did you put the dinosaurs, so to speak?”

“LA, I think. 2017. We also had Big Ben there.” It sounded weird in Sara’s ears and she knew she would call someone crazy if they told her this story.

“You are telling me that dinosaurs were running around in front of Big Ben in Los Angeles, 2017..?”

“Yeah.”

Nyssa wrinkled her forehead and thought for a bit.

“Well, I guess then I can count myself lucky I wasn’t placed in the Stone Age or something”, she concluded with one eyebrow raised and a slight smirk playing around her lips.

“I guess so”, Sara laughed. “I mean, I guess some pretty furs would suit you, too, but this is way nicer to look at.”

Nyssa ironically shook her head. They smiled at each other.

“So, you are here to take me home, are you not?” Nyssa asked and Sara nodded.

“We’re cleaning up our mess”

Nyssa chuckled. “Am I officially your mess now?”

“Oh, how our roles have changed” Sara grinned and reached over to Nyssa, taking her hand in hers, turning serious. “I think I owe my team an explanation… And I would like you to meet them, if you want.”

“There is nothing holding me here, except a billion dollar company I apparently own. And there is nowhere I’d rather be than with you. Nowhere and nowhen, to be precise. Especially without being locked up or one of us dying.”

“Right, this company… Huh. We’ll think of something. I’ll have Ray buy it or something.”

Nyssa looked at her quizzically but decided not to ask. Instead, she squeezed Sara’s hand.

“I have missed you, Ta-er al-Sahfer.”

“You, too, Nys. More than you know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this as in "entire work" format, now's the time to get up, stretch, and drink some water. Just because it's important. Take care of yourself :) Please come back, though, there's more to come :)))


	7. Seeing Through You

Sara had asked everyone to gather in the galley when she and Nyssa had arrived at the Waverider. Still standing in the cargo bay, she ordered Gideon to get them out of 2035 and into the temporal zone and Nyssa looked a bit surprised, when the AI greeted her personally.

“Right away, Captain. Good evening Ms. al Ghul. Or would you rather be called by your official last name?”

Nyssa looked at Sara with a slightly confused expression and Sara nodded in encouragement.

Nyssa looked around and then spoke up. “Since I am no longer bound to my father’s throne, I actually prefer to be called by my mother’s maiden name, thank you for asking”, she articulated very precise and loud, obviously not sure where to direct her words to.

Gideon got her covered and answered: “Very well, Ms. Raatko, welcome aboard the Waverider. I am Gideon, this team’s assistant. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. And you don’t have to speak any different with me than you would with any other person. I can hear you loud and clear.”

“My apologies, I have not had the pleasure of meeting an Artificial Intelligence this evolved, yet. Forgive me for not knowing how to address you.” Nyssa’s tone was still formal but Sara saw the brunette’s shoulders relaxing a bit.

“I like her, Captain Lance”, Gideon said to Sara and Sara laughed, seeing a faint blush appear on Nyssa’s cheeks, who quickly turned away to look around.

“Thanks Gideon, I’ll let you know when I need something else.” She smiled at Nyssa who was looking at her surroundings, taking in the metal and rubber walls, the cargo boxes and the pipes over their heads.

“Let’s get out of the cargo bay and meet my team, huh?” Sara asked casually but she knew Nyssa could sense her nervousness. Just as if on cue, Nyssa spoke.

“There is no need to be nervous, Love. I will show my best behaviour around your friends.”

Sara grinned and waved a hand in a light and dismissive motion. “I know you will; that’s not what I’m nervous about. And although most of the time, I can handle my crew, they might throw some comments your way. We’re quite protective of one another here.”

Nyssa looked at Sara intently. She had always been able to see through Sara’s quipping or cold or distracting exterior and just like that, Sara’s light expression crumbled. There was no use in pretending anyway.

“You’ve lost too much…” Nyssa spoke softly in the dim light. “You carry pain in your heart, Ta-er al-Sahfer.”

It wasn’t a question and Sara knew Nyssa didn’t expect an answer. They simply looked into each other’s eyes, finding sadness in the other person’s gaze. After a while, Nyssa spoke again, changing the subject and her eyes now showed a hint of fascination and pride.

“I’ve always known you have great leadership skills and here you are, Captain of a timeship, controlling a crew of people with powers. I’m almost offended to only hear about that now. It seems not only Mr. Queen is very selective in the information he shares.”

Sara huffed and gave Nyssa a smirk, while already turning around to head towards the galley. Then she briefly looked over her shoulder and dropped her last comment with a shrug.

“You’ve always known that I like to be in control.”


	8. Meeting The Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because the last chapter is so short, I'll give you another one right away :) Enjoy!

“Okay everybody, umm.” Sara looked around and almost hoped Ray would chime in, but he was just looking at her, a curious expression on his face. Everyone else was looking at Nyssa, their faces showing something between wariness, anger and attraction. Sara internally rolled her eyes at Mick’s gaze. This might become harder than she had expected. Sara felt Nyssa’s presence next to her and drew energy from that.

“Great, so. Listen up. We found our anachronism. And to say we go way back would be an understatement.” She turned her face towards Nyssa and smiled, locking eyes with the brunette for a split second and nodding slightly before returning her attention to her team.

Nyssa shifted her stance, pulling back her shoulders, and said: “I am Nyssa. And there was a time in which my introduction had an intimidating ring to it. I was many things over the years. Heir to the Demon, then Ra’s al Ghul and leader of the League of Assassins. Now, I am just Nyssa Raatko. And apparently I own a billion dollar Tech Company in 2035, thanks to you, although I belong into 2019.”

“Another assassin” Mick sounded impressed and added: “That’s hot.”

“Meet Mick Rory, alias Heatwave, likes to burn things to the ground, hence his name”, Sara introduced Mick with an eye roll.

Nyssa gave him a little nod. “Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Rory, I’ll take it.”

Mick nodded, too, and hummed in appreciation.

“Ray Palmer, also known as The Atom, I created the A.T.O.M. suit, which you probably haven’t seen because I was shrunk to the size of the nail of your pinkie, and –“, Ray introduced himself, while offering a hand to Nyssa.

“You’re the founder of my company’s competition”, Nyssa took Ray’s hand and squeezed it once. “Although it still carries Mrs. Smoak’s name. Now I understand why Sara said she might have you buy the company to save your team some trouble.”

“She did? Well, we might have to think that through again, ouch, ow, good grip you have there…” He shook his hand as if to shake out his bones after Nyssa had let go of his fingers.

Sara promised they would. The rest of the team wasn’t too excited to see Nyssa. Zari was relatively indifferent.

“Zari”, she nodded, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise”, Nyssa politely replied, her eyes flickering over Zari’s totem for a split second.

Amaya nodded in Nyssa’s direction as well, but didn’t say anything, her expression still showing anger. Sara knew that it came from a place of worry about the rest of the team. And she wasn’t angry at Nyssa; she was angry that Sara had just brushed them off and then brought a trained killer onto their ship without saying anything on the matter. Sara understood and she said exactly that to her friend. Amaya shrugged and said they could talk about that later.

“Amaya can call upon the spirits of the animals, due to her totem, talk to bears and dinosaurs and fight like a lion and do all sorts of cool things, whatever’s needed to save the day”, Sara proudly explained to Nyssa and the brunette’s eyes widened in genuine admiration, her dark eyes finding Amaya’s and locking them in her strong but friendly gaze.

“That is impressive. I have known some people with totems but most of them used them for unrighteous doings. This is the only way they should be used.”

Amaya did her best not to look intrigued but she had a terrible poker face (one which Sara had definitely taken advantage of in the past).

“So… whom did you meet..?” she mumbled and briefly averted her gaze, as if to break the spell the assassin’s eyes had cast.

Sara looked from Amaya to Nyssa with a grin tucking at the corner of her mouth, as she knew exactly the power of the brunette’s gaze if she intended to keep someone’s attention. It was how Sara first had gotten lost in the dark and limitless depths of Nyssa’s eyes - and look where it had taken her. She felt for Amaya, this wasn’t really a fair game. Yet, she enjoyed the attention Nyssa gave each one of her team members. Just now, she was answering Amaya’s question.

“For one, Damien Darhk used an idol, something like totem, to harness dark magic, powers that made him nearly immortal - until The Arrow managed to overpower him”, she nodded towards Sara who sighed in response.

“Yeah well… I’ve got news for you… but that’s a story for another time.”

Nyssa raised an eyebrow and her mouth formed a straight line, her back straightening up a bit, but without further questions, she turned back to the rest of the team.

“I once witnessed how an entire village was burnt to the ground by a woman carrying the sister totem to yours-“, she pointed over to Zari, who briefly touched her totem, “I also met a man in Shanghai once, who was called “The Dragon” because of his totem, and I believe I also have seen this exact totem before, although around another woman’s neck.”

“You have? You know my granddaughter?” Amaya didn’t pretend to not be interested anymore.

Nyssa’s face showed surprise. “Your… oh. I understand, you are from the past.” Nyssa nodded slowly. “It is odd to not think of time as a set entity anymore. Yes, we have crossed paths. Although I believe she does not know she has crossed mine. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done my job”, she smiled. “She fought alongside The Arrow and Sara’s sister Laurel, the Black Canary, when I last saw her.” A sudden but barely noticeable sadness crept its way into Nyssa’s eyes. It was gone a second later.

She turned towards Nate, who towered next to Amaya as if she needed his protection.

“And you are Nate; you came into my office with Sara.”

“Yeah - and you can’t kill me in my sleep because I can literally turn into steel, so don’t even try.” Nate spat, trying to be cold but fear clearly radiating from his body. Nyssa raised her eyebrows at the verbal attack.

Sara groaned and half uncrossed her arms to bury her face in the palm of her left hand.

“Good job, Nathaniel, way to make at least a good second impression”, she mumbled but looked through the spaces between her fingers when Nyssa answered in a serious tone.

“I wouldn’t dare to hurt anyone dear to Sara. I tried that and failed, a long time ago. And I am glad she forgave me for my attempt, I will not jeopardize that.”

Sara couldn’t help but briefly let her hand touch Nyssa’s. There it was again, that electric tingling, warm and pulling and as if their fingers were magnetic. She saw Zari cocking an eyebrow and withdrew her hand, crossing her arms again.

“So…” Mick looked surprisingly interested in the whole conversation. Sara braced herself. “What’d you do, try and steal her girl?”

Nyssa tilted her head and her eyes darkened, the only evidence that she had various emotions concerning this question. She shook her head slightly and opened her mouth to say something but didn’t have the time to respond, since Sara let one hand rest on Nyssa’s arm and jumped in.

“In fact, Mick, I was her girl. And all of this talk is way too personal for my taste, I need to keep up my mysterious vibe and I cannot do that if y’all know everything about my past.” Her tone was dry and although it could have sounded like a joke, her look made clear that this was the end of story time.

“Alright, so, what now?” Ray asked into the awkward silence stretching out in the galley.

“’What now’?” Nate repeated, adding air quotation marks, and huffed. “We’re gonna take her back to 2019 and that’s gonna be the first successful mission without screwing anything up and we’re all gonna survive and no one will be assassinated in their sleep.”

“Nate…” Sara growled warningly.

Zari’s tone was borderline impressed when she addressed her team mate. “Wow, Nate, aren’t you just full of shit and sunshine today..?”

He shrugged and pursed his lips into a pout and looked like a little boy who had to give back a toy he stole.

Sara made herself draw in a deep breath and then smiled at him.

“Look. I am an assassin. Nyssa trained me. But I actually completed the League’s training twice, you know, I was personal assistant to Ra’s al Ghul before Nyssa was even born, yet. If anyone is going to assassinate you in your sleep, it’s going to be me, because you disrespect my –” she paused briefly and then continued, “– her. I don’t have anyone else do my dirty work. So, if you have anything else to say, I’d advise you to do it right now, since there are witnesses around.”

She stared Nate down and could clearly see the gears grinding in his head, as he was trying to figure out if this was an actual threat, a show of force, or just a joke to clear the air. After a few seconds, he just shook his head in anger, then nodded abruptly and, visibly vexed, marched off.

“Anyone else..? Maybe something less offensive?” Sara looked around and into the faces of her team.

After an outstretched pause, Zari cleared her throat and waved her hand around.

“You two seem to have a lot to catch up on and as long as we’re in the temporal zone, Nyssa’s… Ms. Raatko’s… - ” she looked questioning at the other brunette.

“Nyssa, please”, she replied and smiled at Zari, who continued her sentence.

“As long as we’re in the temporal zone, Nyssa’s anachronism status doesn’t threaten history anymore. We can decide what to do tomorrow. It doesn’t really matter anyways for now.”

Sara looked at her newest team member with gratitude. She didn’t want to simply decide that Nyssa could stay onboard, even though she was captain, it wouldn’t feel right, but she secretly really didn’t want to say goodbye again so soon after just having found her. What were the odds of the only anachronism in the future being her… long lost love..? Sara internally rolled her eyes at herself for thinking that phrase.

Amaya looked over to Nyssa with curiosity; it seemed she was eager to ask more questions about totems and her future granddaughter. At the same time, by the way Nyssa was just looking at Sara, she knew that there were probably other things on the assassin’s mind, so she decided that she should rather go find Nathaniel to listen to his whining for a bit so that the air could clear. She excused herself with a mumbled “I’ll go check on Nate” and left the galley, followed by Ray, who said something about wanting to check his A.T.O.M. Exosuit’s high-spectrum portable radiograph, since he hadn’t been able to get a clear view into Nyssa’s office earlier. Zari wished them a good night and went off towards her quarters. Sara waited for Mick to leave but he was still staring intently at Nyssa. Sara sighed and got no reaction from him. Shaking her head, she said his name and when he still didn’t seem to hear her, she barked: “Mick! Stop staring!”

Mick jumped slightly at the increased volume looking around and apparently only now realizing he was the last one there except for the two assassins in front of him.

“Oh, uh…”, he mumbled. Sara could practically see his mind working and shot him a warning look, then jerking her head towards the hallway.

Mick apparently noticed that him finding Nyssa very attractive didn’t sit too well with his captain at the moment and resolved to just shrug. After grabbing two bottles of beer from the fridge, he left them alone, too.


	9. A Place For You

Finally alone, Sara was suddenly weirdly nervous. It had been so long, and now, everything was so oddly well-timed, she was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that it was actually Nyssa standing here, on the Waverider, in the middle of the galley, as if she belonged there and yet, so out of place. The blonde went over to the liquor cabinet and reached for the scotch, in the last moment deciding to go for something else.

“Gideon, can you make a bottle of Amrut Fusion Indian Single Malt Whisky?”

Nyssa drew in a small breath.

“Of course, Captain”, Gideon’s voice resonated from the walls and a bottle filled with golden yellow liquid started materializing in the little chamber next to the fridge.

“They can create food and drinks?” Nyssa looked at Sara in awe. “Even such a specific request? It’s the Himalayan ingredients that make this whisky special…”

“Gideon can create whatever you want. Anything. Clothes are made in the fabrication chamber next to the medical bay, this one here keeps us alive. Anything you’ve always wanted to try?”

Sara smiled; Nyssa had an expression of childlike wonder on her face. She had seen this expression before. It had always been one of her favourites. On their travels, their missions, they respectively had taught each other new things every time. For every inch of muscle and ounce of knowledge Nyssa had made Sara gain, Sara had shown her the little details of life, those that keep things fun. They had been at little bars and huge concerts, Sara had taught Nyssa how to ice-skate, she had taken Nyssa out on a date to a carnival and the first time that the brunette had ever tasted popcorn was a memory Sara would always hold dear. That same wonder and excitement was noticeable in Nyssa’s eyes now, although she shook her head at the question Sara had asked.

“Oh, and Gideon self-identifies as female”, Sara added and winked when Nyssa’s eyebrows shot up.

“The Captain is correct. Since my default voice setting is that of a woman, I at some point got used to my team referring to me with female pronouns. Technically, I have neither sex nor gender. I do feel closer to what my data presents as female, though.” Gideon chimed in. “The materialization process is finished”, she added.

“See?” Sara grinned and got the bottle out of the food fabricator.

“Well, I’ll gratefully accept a drink and will let my taste buds be the judge of her skills, then”, Nyssa retorted and took the glass Sara presented her with and watched as she poured two fingers of whisky into it.

“Cheers”, Sara held her own glass in the air.

“To being at the right place and time for once”, Nyssa replied and let the rim of her glass touch Sara’s.

“Twice, actually”, Sara smiled and thought of how much had changed since that day Nyssa had found her drifting afloat in the ocean close to the shores of Lian Yu.

The whisky’s warming, intense and full flavour brought up just as warming and intense memories for Sara and she let her eyes flutter shut for a moment as she cherished the burning liquid running down her throat. _A dimly lit chamber, candles flickering, warmth radiating from their bare bodies, Sara having produced the liquor bottle and two glasses from under their bed, where she had stored them for safe-keeping until there was a special moment…_ When she opened her eyes again, she found Nyssa looking at her intently, their eyes locking in silent understanding.

“Come on, let’s go somewhere a little nicer than the galley”, Sara suggested and, their glasses and the bottle in hand, they went over to the Captain’s quarters on the bridge.

 

“Earlier you said you completed the League’s training twice..? Being personal assistant to my father… I-“, Nyssa looked at her with thoughtful eyes.

Sara nodded and took another sip of her liquor. “Yup. We kinda got stranded in the past and I didn’t feel like I belonged there… so I went to seek out the only place I’ve ever really felt at home, the only place I knew I’d belong. And what can I say..? Ra’s and I worked well together. He was impressed with my skills”, she smiled at the brunette and added: “Didn’t explicitly tell him I learned from his daughter, though.”

Nyssa had smiled softly, when Sara had mentioned the word ‘home’, she liked the idea that even without her there, Nanda Parbat had been shelter to Sara’s restless soul. “When was that? How did you get stuck in the past?”

“Ah, time travel problems”, Sara grimaced. “I thought Mick, who had been brainwashed, had stolen our ship and killed the rest of my team. Turned out I was wrong. He did try to kill us, though. But we’re good now.” Nyssa’s expression was unreadable.

“Anyways, that was in 1958. Left the League again two years later. Fun fact: Ra’s himself released me from the League. Ironic, huh?” Sara ended her story.

Nyssa raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You… It was you. In my father’s stories. I was so young, I couldn’t possibly draw the connection, but…”

“Yeah… I actually kinda trained your sister for a bit”, Sara gave Nyssa a one-sided smile. “Plus…”

Nyssa waited for her to continue.

“Plus, the last thing I told Ra’s was to send you to Lian Yu in 2008.” Sara swallowed, hoping Nyssa wouldn’t get mad at her intervening in Nyssa’s life like that.

The brunette’s eyes widened, realization hitting her and her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but no words came out of her mouth. After a few moments, she finally managed to whisper: “You could have changed your whole life, you could have made sure never to become a killer, you could have lived a life unburdened –“

“Shhh”, Sara interrupted. “I don’t care about the pain, about the killing, all of that… It brought me to you. It made me who I am today. It gave me the best moments of my life. I’d never give that up, I don’t care how many times that option is offered to me. Also, I might have died back then already if it wasn’t for you. I actually probably would’ve drowned or starved to death or something, so… It was a pretty self-serving decision to tell him to send his daughter to that godforsaken island.”

Nyssa let out a low chuckle and shook her head in wonder. “I get now why he wasn’t the least surprised when I brought you home.”

“He was definitely good at keeping secrets” Sara rolled her eyes and they fell into a comfortable silence, each caught up in their own thoughts.

“So, after you became an assassin for the second time, you somehow managed to become captain of a timeship full of very interesting people. What else do you have on your résumé, Beloved?” Nyssa quipped, her tone light but her gaze genuinely interested. A lot had happened since the last saw each other. Sara thought for a bit and then chuckled.

“Well, I worked at _Sink Shower & Stuff _for a bit. When I mentally killed my manager with a new kitchen knife, I decided it was time to quit.”

Nyssa bit back a laugh and asked: “Was it a good knife?” at the same moment that Sara added: “It was a quite decent knife, though” and their soft laughter entangled mid-air into a beautiful melody.

They sat in the two big arm chairs for hours, sometimes casually touching each other’s hands but otherwise just talking, explaining, filling in all the gaps, catching up, sharing stories and laughing at memories. Nyssa let Sara know that if anyone else told her all of these stories, she would most certainly not believe them, especially when it came to the travelling not only time and space but also earths and Sara agreed that all of it sounded like fiction. The brunette joked that she had no problem envisioning Sara’s charms working in all the realms, though, and Sara blushed but shrugged with a smirk, glad that Nyssa felt at ease. At some point, the bottle of whisky was a little less than half full, Sara realized that she hadn’t been this happy in years. And she reached over to lace her fingers together with Nyssa’s because the distance between them was not suitable for her heart feeling so full of love and joy.

Right before they went to bed - Sara had shown Nyssa Jax’ former quarters to spend the night - Nyssa turned serious. In 2019, the assassin apparently still lived in their little hut in the mountains, enjoying the silence in the Himalayas, but at the same time keeping a new and even more secret League of Assassins running. The level of secrecy explained why Nyssa had introduced herself with “former leader of the League of Assassins”. No one was supposed to know there was a small, hand-picked group of assassins still working in the dark and ridding this world of evil people. Nyssa told Sara that she needed to go back to her job, to her life, to her people and added, that she didn’t see a way they could just stay together like this.

Sara felt the happiness draining from her heart. She whispered that Nyssa could just stay and be part of the team, as they needed someone new to take Jax’ and Stein’s places anyway and she’d fit in well with the team after a proper introduction and adaptation phase. Nyssa listened to Sara but shook her head in scepticism.

“Are you sure they’d accept me? I do not know yet, what Mr. Heywood’s problem is, but I sense there is something bigger going on…”

Sara huffed. “Nate is harmless. There's probably nothing bigger going on. Just some fear and anger and issues with authorities. We are a team but this team is our family and we protect each other. You know we’ve lost a lot over the past few weeks. He’s just being overprotective, maybe a little jealous, and pissed at me for talking him down. His quarrel is with me”, she assured.

“Even if that is true - how do you think I could be of assistance? You already have an assassin on the team, all of you can fight, and everyone who isn’t Captain either brings superpowers or brains to create superpowers to the table”, Nyssa tried to reason with Sara.

She sighed and looked at the Demon’s worried expression. Even after all these years, Nyssa still seemed to have problems accepting that she was… good enough. A warm, genuine look filled Sara’s eyes and she slightly creased her brow as her lips curled up into a loving smile.

“You are the most amazing human being I have encountered in all the times, places and earths I’ve travelled to, Nyssa - you are a warrior, you are brave and smart and have great leadership skills, you’re also extremely well-read in history and cultures, you have a great strategic mind and as if that’s not enough, you’re also blessed with the face of a goddess and a killer body - I’m sure we’d find a place for you in our ranks, Ms. Raatko”, Sara smirked.

“You flatter me, Beloved.” Nyssa turned her head away from Sara but the blonde had already spotted the pink flush creeping up Nyssa’s cheeks. It was adorable. It was also probably due to the alcohol as well, but Sara chose to believe the heat in Nyssa’s face was due to her words alone.

The Demon’s Head cleared her throat and looked down at their entwined fingers. Her other hand came up to gently touch the back of Sara’s hand.

“They need a leader, Ta-er al-Sahfer. I swore an oath…” Nyssa trailed off.

“Would it make any difference if I released you from your duties this time..?” Sara attempted a joke but it was half-hearted.

Nyssa gave her a sad smile and replied: “That didn’t stop you from returning to the League, did it..?”

“You know I came back more than once… And I will again, if you will have me back.”

Nyssa pressed her hands firmly against Sara’s and locked gazes with her.

“Nanda Parbat will always be your home. And you will always have a home with me”, she assured.

According to Nyssa, if Sara ever wanted to find her after retiring from the Legends, she could just go back to 2019 a few minutes after leaving and Nyssa wouldn’t even know that it would still have been years.

Sara felt a little lump in her throat thinking about how it could still be years for her until she would possibly see Nyssa again.


	10. When The World Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the pain. I truly am. Please don't hate me.
> 
> If you value the warning tags and haven't checked them for this story, make sure you know what you're going to be dealing with here.

“I would like to go back to 2035 and grab my League suit before we go back to 2019, if I may”, Nyssa requested softly, the statement directed at the whole team. “I don’t wear it often anymore, but I just so happened to wear it when I got plucked out of the timeline and placed in the future. It has some emotional value to me.”

There were indifferent shrugs and hums but Sara just nodded slowly. She understood. Nyssa was keeping up appearances to safeguard the League, but at the same time, she genuinely requested to go back to her office once more to take her black and red leather outfit “for old times’ sake”. It was believable. Sara, too, sometimes missed her Canary Suit, the black leather jacket, the mask… not the wig and the corset, she was glad her new suit was quite comfortable. But some of her best missions had happened wearing that outfit. It was part of the beginning of her journey. Thinking about the past made Sara nostalgic and she cleared her throat.

“Of course. Since you want to go back to the place you were at last in 2019, everything else should still be where it last was.”

She still wasn’t happy about the team’s and Nyssa’s decision to take her back to Nanda Parbat. But she respected the assassin’s wish and there was no use in trying to talk her out of it. Sara admired Nyssa’s thorough strategic play. Officially disbanding the League kept Oliver and his team, and anyone else having issues with the League, at bay, and at the same time, Nyssa and her people were still able to operate under the radar. 

“We can land the Waverider on the roof of your company complex. Amaya, Nate and Ray will stay on board, you’re literally CEO so you can go wherever you want, Mick and Zari will go as your bodyguards. I’m already officially working for you, so no one is gonna question me shuffling after you with some files, we’ll get your suit and get out of the future.” Sara looked around, receiving affirmative nods and hums from her team. Sara was surprised no one protested but shrugged and gave the signal to strap in and get going.

“Gideon, plot a course for our most recent destination again but make sure we’re gonna be there a day later. Don’t want to break time yet again, do we..?”

 

Somehow, everything had gone south from the moment they had entered the hall leading to Nyssa’s office. Somehow, they had walked into a trap. Somehow, even though they had not screwed anything up this time, they had gotten into a fight. Somehow, someone had gained access to the Waverider and fought Ray, Nate and Amaya there. Somehow, the hallway was crawling with armed people. Sara’s head was spinning. What on earth was going on?!

She and Nyssa were both fighting highly trained men in hand-to-hand combat, the distance too short to draw a gun or something the like. There was gunfire further up the hallway, though, and Mick had set one or two people on fire, causing even more havoc. Nyssa had easily freed her opponent from his knife and now he kept swinging hard punches her way. They both managed to knock the two guys out at nearly the same time. Sara heard Nyssa’s opponent groan in pain the second she felt her own opponent’s nose give in under her fist, bones cracking and blood flooding from his nostrils. Nyssa took a second to shout over to Sara if she knew what was going on. Sara shook her head and then called out: “Watch out!” as a woman, who had just managed to knock Mick to the ground by repeatedly kneeing him in the chest, drew a gun from her holster and pointed it in Nyssa’s direction. Zari, her black suit covered in dust from broken walls’ rubble and ripped at the right sleeve, blasted her against the next wall with her wind totem and then, before Sara could thank her, immediately got entangled in another fight with two more guys who just came storming through the hallway. Sara motioned towards the office and Nyssa understood, making a run for it. Just as Sara was about to send one of her throwing knives to come to Zari’s help, she heard Nate’s pained voice shout Amaya’s name over her com. For only a second, she was distracted and immediately got punished for it. She felt a sharp pain splitting her skull, stars exploding in the back of her head, and with a furious growl, she whirled around, slitting her attacker’s throat with the drawn throwing knife, blood splattering up the white hallway walls and splashing onto her face and upper body, soaking her button-down, sleeveless white blouse. Part of her brain realized the warm, red liquid dripping onto the asymmetrically cut, light piece of clothing and revelled in the feeling. Part of her brain was still preoccupied with the pain in her head. And the last part of her brain suddenly noticed that Nyssa might be facing off against someone real bad in the office, by herself. She didn’t even notice how her legs just started moving by themselves, as she sprinted towards the end of the hallway, her bloody, dripping throwing knife still in hand, and rushed into the CEO office.

Within a matter of two seconds, the Captain realized three things. The first thing Sara noticed was that Nyssa was currently fighting three people at once. The second thing was that her elegance hadn’t been lost one bit in the last few years, the skills of the Demon’s Head were clearly unmatched by anyone in the room. Yet, being outnumbered made it a relatively equal fight. And the third thing Sara noticed was that a blonde figure, dressed in an all black suit, shirt and tie, stood on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall with a seemingly unfazed demeanour.

Damien Darhk.

Sara felt fury rise in her chest and, still mid-movement, she finally sent the drenched throwing knife flying from her hand, drawing the next one directly afterwards and sending it towards Darhk’s face. A sly smile curled up his lips and with a bored movement of his arm, both weapons harmlessly fell to the ground in front of his feet. The blonde assassin charged towards him but was thrown back hard, as if she had just run into a brick wall. Sara recovered fast and jumped up from the ground and back onto her feet, her third, and last throwing knife drawn and ready to fly. In the last moment, she thought better than to just blindly throw it away.

Sara could hear through the coms that her still standing team members were all busy fighting people outside and on the ship. She briefly wondered what had happened to Amaya but didn't take the time to finish her thought.

She and Nyssa were the only two in Nyssa’s old office.

She grabbed one of Nyssa’s two remaining attackers by the shoulder and pushed the knife into their back right next to the left shoulder blade, pulling it out again while letting them sink to the ground. They would bleed out within the next two minutes. When the man rolled onto his back, Sara felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was Lindman. He gave her a toothy smile, the white of his teeth smeared with red. His mouth moved forming the word _surprise_ but no sound escaped his lips. Sara snapped back to attention when Nyssa broke her last opponents neck a second later and the two of them then stood opposite of Darhk, breathing heavily.

Darhk slowly clapped his hands together, mocking them with an impressed expression on his face.

“Congratulations, you managed to kill innocent people today, Miss Lance. I thought you were over that..?” he scoffed and Nyssa, wiping some blood off her lip, retorted that no one fighting for him was innocent. Flaring her nostrils, she charged at him, only to hit the same air-brick wall Sara had hit before.

“Come on, Damien. Magic? You can make it more exciting than that”, Sara mocked back and received a thoughtful, slow nod from him in response.

“You are right, I could. But, for once, I didn’t come here to make it exciting for you, Sara”, his tone was oddly friendly and at the same moment, he moved up his left arm. It took a second for Sara to realize that he was lifting Nyssa off the floor.

Fucking bastard. Her last throwing knife flew towards Darhk the same moment Sara suddenly lost touch to the ground, rapidly moving against her will. Darhk used his magic to throw her into the air and she violently hit the ceiling and then crashed back down onto the floor, burying her left leg underneath herself in a weird angle. Sara couldn’t suppress a cry of pain when bones broke and ligaments were torn apart. Light-headed, she heard Nyssa scream her name in the distance. The room was spinning for a moment until Sara managed to ground herself and found the strength to push away the pain and sit back up.

“Ouch, that looks like it hurts”, Darhk commented drily, pointing at her leg.

Sara, drawing in flat breaths, followed his gaze and watched the navy blue fabric of her pants slowly turn darker as it soaked up the blood from the open fracture in her tibia. _Great._

“Anyway. You see, Canary, I realized you wouldn’t stop coming after me after what I did to your sister.”

The blonde growled: “Finally something we agree on. Now let Nyssa go.”

Darhk didn’t react to her order but just continued his monologue: “Losing your sister... it broke you. And I was delighted! Unfortunately, you got better and I died. But, I’m back. And now, look at what I set up for you!”

Sara clenched her jaw and pushed out a sharp “Do you have a point?” between her teeth.

Darhk looked over to Nyssa, who was clutching her throat as if someone invisible was strangling her.

“See, I found your Beloved, I brought her to the future so you would find her as well, I even made her a billionaire - I mean, come on, a little appreciation please.” His expression showed nothing but arrogance and he seemed more than pleased with himself.

“Let… her… go…” Sara gritted through her teeth. She didn’t want to believe any of this. Her head hurt. Her leg hurt. _Why, just why was this man always ruining the day?_

Darhk disappointedly shook his head. “Young people nowadays, no respect… As I was saying: I brought her here for you. So that you’d know what you _almost_ had. Because now, I brought the two of you to me so that you, Miss Lance… can watch her die.”

Sara suddenly snapped to attention as she felt panic settling in her stomach, and she immediately looked over to Nyssa. Her eyes found Sara’s and they were pleading for her to run and leave her behind, to get safe, just like they did back in the dungeons of Nanda Parbat. No words left her lips, not only because she would never beg for someone to spare her life, but also because there was no air left in her chest. She had stopped kicking her feet because there was no enemy to fight, there was no one to punch, there was nothing to break free from with physical strength or combat skills. There was just magic, holding her three feet above the ground, dangling mid-air, held up by Darhk’s mental grasp on her throat.

“Don’t do this, Darhk, I swear, I will hunt you down and I will kill you, if it’s the last thing I do”, Sara threatened but her whole attention was on Nyssa.

Her mind was spinning, rapidly, praying to the spirits, God or literally anyone who would listen.

_No, not now, not after we just found each other again, not like this, please, no, he can’t take anyone else from me, not again, I can’t lose her…_

“Sara, Sara, dear, I know what you’re thinking”, Darhk tut-tutted with a slimy smile and then disguised his voice, imitating and mocking Sara’s thoughts. “‘No, please, don’t do this, you already took my sister from me…’”

He lowered his voice into an almost conspiratorial tone. “Indeed, I did. And I found great pleasure in watching you go down a dark path… Now, I wonder what’s going to happen to that White Canary soul if you lose the woman you love for good… I think it would be fitting if she died the same way she killed her last opponent, don’t you think?”

Sara felt paralyzed. She numbly noticed the dull throb of her shattered leg. She was powerless, on the floor, unable to stand, her three throwing knives uselessly clattered on the floor around Darhk’s feet. All she could do was sit there and stare at him, hoping that some miracle would save Nyssa because she wouldn’t be able to do so herself.

The blonde man viciously grinned at Sara and she looked from him over to Nyssa and couldn’t do anything but stare the love of her life into her dark brown eyes, trying to keep in the tears that panic pushed forward.

 

 

With a quick movement of his wrist, Damien Darhk snapped Nyssa’s neck.

 

In slow motion, the lifeless assassin fell to the ground with a thud - and the world ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the pain. I truly am. Please don't hate me.


	11. Shaken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again. I am sorry for the pain I caused. It was a necessary step in this story. I hope, you'll feel better after this one. At least for now.

Sara woke up from her own scream. It took a second for her to realize she was neither in that office, nor was she facing Damien Darhk. She was, however, bathed in cold sweat, lying on the hard metal ground in her quarters, her leg sending a dull message of pain to her brain. Apparently, she had fallen out of her bed while tossing and turning because of a nightmare. A terrible, so seemingly real nightmare.

Still panting, Sara scrambled to get up from the floor, already halfway towards the big door to check if Nyssa was actually okay, when she felt her stomach twisting and tasted the stinging taste of acid on her tongue. Quick-thinking, she reached over to the little sink in her quarters, left of the door, and steadied her stance leaning against it right the second she couldn’t fight the urge to throw up anymore.

_Shit._

Her body was shaking, convulsing against the unwelcome movements of her stomach’s muscle rings, her knees weak, hands quivering.

Sara could barely remember the last time she had had to vomit. She fortunately wasn’t really prone to being ill. In fact, she seemed to meet the grim reaper more often than a virus, and the days in which things like blood and fights and even killing would make her sick were long over.

After a while, as her body was relaxing, Sara was able to draw small and flat breaths through her nose. With shaky fingers, she opened the tab and let cold water run to clear out her mouth and the sink. Their dinner had been mostly liquid, which Sara appreciated a lot at the moment. One hand still gripping the sink, Sara closed the tab again and then grabbed the bottle of mouth water standing on the sink with her shaking hand. She poured a good amount of the green fluid in her toothbrush cup. To get rid of the bitter taste on her tongue, she rinsed her mouth with it until she was sure there was nothing left in her mouth but the stinging of peppermint on her taste buds. Sadly, the sting on her tongue didn’t manage to mask the pain in her chest and head. She definitely needed to do a reality check.

Sara somehow knew she had just woken up, but the images were burned into her brain as if everything she had seen had actually just happened two minutes ago. She wasn't sure what was real and what just a nightmare.

When her knees finally ceased to shake and she felt steady enough to walk, Sara moved over to the door and opened it the exact second someone knocked from the outside.

There, hands still lifted in a knocking motion and a worried expression on her face, stood -

“Nyssa!” Relief hit Sara like a wave.

“Sara, is everything alright?? I heard you sc-”

Nyssa’s worried questions were cut short by Sara throwing herself into the brunette’s arms. For a split second, Nyssa’s body went rigid, not expecting this kind of touch, and she took a step back to steady her stance, but soon, she wrapped Sara into a warm embrace.

“It’s okay, my love, you’re okay”, she whispered soothingly and Sara dryly sobbed a strained “You’re okay” in response.

She held on to Nyssa, who kept saying “I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re okay”, until she felt able to give the Demon’s Head some space to breathe. Still in their embrace, Sara leaned back a little, retracting her right hand from Nyssa’s back and softly touching her face.

“Thank God you’re alive…”, Sara’s voice was barely audible, a whisper at best. Her fingers gently followed Nyssa's jawline, traced down her neck and came to rest on her pulse point, blood rushing underneath them in a promise.

Warm, loving eyes looked at her in concern and Sara’s glossy eyes flickered to Nyssa’s lips.

The brunette drew in a small breath, noticing where Sara's attention had turned. The tip of her tongue briefly wetted her lips. Sara felt Nyssa's heartbeat quicken a little under her fingertips.

“You’re alive”, she mumbled again and, full of wonder and relief, she leaned in to gently place her lips on the assassin’s, as if she had to feel her warm breath blend with her own to make sure of that statement.

Nyssa’s lips were soft on hers, inviting and warm against the minty coolness of Sara’s mouth. A memory of the last time she had kissed Nyssa flashed before Sara’s eyes. It had been their goodbye kiss before Sara had left for Star City, all that time ago. A lifetime ago. Literally. There had been desperation in the way Nyssa’s lips had pressed on hers back then. She had had a bad feeling about Sara’s mission. Little did they know how right Nyssa’s guts had been.

This kiss, standing in the hallway of the Waverider, just outside of Sara’s quarters, this kiss wasn’t goodbye. It was hello, and both women knew it. It felt like home and adventure simultaneously, and even though mere minutes before, Sara had felt like her world had shattered into pieces, here Nyssa was, putting it back together. Piece by piece, slow movement by slow movement and soft tongue stroke by soft tongue stroke, until there was no more fear in Sara’s heart. There was no rush, no sadness, no bad feeling. Their lips moved together just as they had thousands of times before, and yet, it was different, new.

When they parted, both their cheeks were flushed with pink, awe in their eyes. They rested their foreheads together, neither of them wanting to let go just yet.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get here earlier, I did not know how to work the control panel for my quarters’ door and punching it in didn’t work. Until Gideon spoke up saying that she could only open the door if I did not destroy the panel and reminded me that I could ask her for help, almost two minutes had passed already…” Nyssa whispered and seemed truly sorry.

“It’s okay”, Sara smiled softly. She pulled her head back a bit to make eye contact with Nyssa. “You’d get the hang of it if you stayed for a bit, y’know…”

The brunette refrained from replying anything to the suggestion and instead asked: “What happened? I haven’t heard you scream like that in…” she paused and then said: “I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever heard you scream like that.”

“Bad dream…” Sara muttered and leaned her head against Nyssa’s chest, close to her heart, listening to her heartbeat pounding strong and steady underneath Sara’s ear, a promise to be alive with her, if just for a while longer. “Really bad dream”, she repeated more into Nyssa’s soft, dark red sweatshirt than for anyone to hear.

“What can I do..?” Nyssa’s voice was warm and Sara felt her heart stutter briefly at the sound resonating in Nyssa’s chest. She wanted to just stay right there, afraid that if she moved an inch too far away, the woman she held close would drop dead after all.

“Back in the day, whenever you awoke of nightmares, I never knew exactly what I could do to help you, so I usually just held you close”, Nyssa recalled after a moment of silence between them and swallowed down her emotions.

“And would you be okay with that now, too..?” Sara asked bashfully, feeling stupid for behaving like a scared teenage girl.

But Nyssa just said: “Of course, Beloved, whatever you need.”

And like that, Sara ended up in her bed again, tucked closely against Nyssa’s body, the brunette’s arms wrapped tightly around her, a feeling that she truly thought she would never experience again. When Sara drew in a stuttering breath, relaxing against the taller woman behind her, she felt all tension draining from her heart, knowing she was safe, and so was the woman she loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that you can breathe again: time to get up, stretch, and drink some water. Just because it's important. Take care of yourself :)


	12. Dream Hits Reality

“I would like to go back to 2035 and grab my League suit before we go back to 2019, if I may”, Nyssa spoke softly, voicing her request. “I don’t wear it often anymore, but I just so happened to wear it when I got plucked out of the timeline and placed in the future. It has some emotional value to me.”

Sara was sure she misheard.

“What did you just say?” she stared at Nyssa with wide eyes, panic creeping into her heart.

Nyssa looked confused. “I would like to get my suit from the office..?”

Feeling like a rock had just sunken into her stomach, dragging her down, Sara shook her head. _This wasn’t happening._

“What’s wrong, Sara?” Confusion made way for concern and Nyssa reached out to the Captain’s hand, taking it into hers for comfort.

Sara shook her head harder, drew away her hand and immediately missed the touch. “I’m sorry Nyssa, but we’re not gonna go back there. Ever. I promise you, I’ll have Gideon make you a new outfit.”

“Captain, I don’t really see a problem...” Ray expressed his perplexity now. “We could definitely just go and grab that outfit. No big deal.”

“No. Not a single person of this team is going to step a foot into that building ever again, end of discussion.” Sara’s tone was icy.

Amaya looked honestly concerned now. “Sara, what’s going on?” she asked and Zari, leaning against the central console, lifted an eyebrow wondering: “Yeah, do you know something we don’t..?”

Sara clenched her teeth together, the muscles in her jaw working hard. Finally she just shook her head, breathing: “I’m not doing this”, and marched off, away from the bridge.

Already in the hallway, she heard another voice speaking up. “Captain, if this is about that vivid dream I monitored last night –“

“Enough, Gideon. I don’t want to hear another word”, Sara almost ran now, taking big strides towards the galley.

In the distance, she heard Nyssa apologize to the rest of her team. She knew the brunette would come find her sooner rather than later.

Sara went directly to the liquor cabinet and took out the bottle of scotch, she didn’t even grab herself a glass. Somewhere in the world, in the multiverse, it was definitely appropriate drinking time. The burning liquid in her throat managed to cover the piercing images in her head. The assassin felt Nyssa standing in the doorway without having to look up. When she still had been with Nyssa in Nanda Parbat, they would make it a competition to try and sneak up on one another. They had learned to sense each other’s presence pretty quick.

“Is this about last night..?” Nyssa spoke softly and stayed where she stood, giving Sara as much space as possible.

Sara took another big sip from the bottle in her hands. Then, she turned around to face the brunette while leaning her head against the cupboard behind her.

“I’m not going back there and neither are you, Nyssa, it’s too risky”, she stated.

“Okay, Love. If that’s what you feel then I am sure you are right… Would you explain your feeling to me nonetheless? Please, Sara, talk to me…” Nyssa asked, pleaded to be let in.

Sara bit her lip to prevent it from trembling, as images of her dream flashed before eyes.

_Let… her… go…_   
_Now, I wonder what’s going to happen if you lose the woman you love for good…_   
_No, not now, not after we just found each other again, not like this, please, no, he can’t take anyone else from me…_   
_I swear, I will hunt you down and I will kill you…_   
_I think it would be fitting if she died the same way she killed her last opponent…_

When Sara tasted blood on her tongue, she realised she wasn’t going to stop the tremor in her lips. Her eyes filled with hot, stinging tears and she cursed under her breath because _fuck_ she didn’t want to cry. It had just been a stupid dream, nothing had happened, it hadn’t been a memory or anything the like, so why was this weighing down on her this much?

Sara just watched as Nyssa slowly stepped closer and didn’t resist when she took the bottle out of her grip and put it down on the countertop. When she felt Nyssa’s soft touch on both sides of her face, Sara couldn’t hold in her tears anymore and they spilled free down her cheeks onto the brunette’s fingers. Nyssa’s eyes widened with surprise. It had been, well, years since she last witnessed her Beloved cry tears of pain, fear or desperation. The blonde usually was able to push those emotions away, bottle them up or turn furious over them, converting them into righteous anger. If she ever cried, her tears were just a few drops of happiness, love or gratitude running over her face. Feeling Sara shake with silent sobs, her face wet from crying - that, she hadn’t seen or felt since early on in Sara’s training with the League. Controlling emotions and focusing on other things, bottling up feelings - those were among the first things to master if one wanted to be an assassin.

Seeing Sara shaking with desperation brought fear into the older woman’s heart and worry was written into every wrinkle and clenched muscle in her face.

“Sara, Love, what is it, what did you see in your dreams that has you terrified like this?” Nyssa’s voice was imploring. “Sometimes, the Spirits speak to us in our dreams, you know that. What did you see? What happened to you?”

Sara ran her tongue over her chapped and slightly bloody bottom lip, drawing in a deep breath.

“Me? I broke my leg. You…” She trailed off. Nyssa pushed a strand of blonde hair behind Sara’s left ear, keeping quiet.

“He…” Sara gritted her teeth again. “He…”

“Whom did you see, Beloved?”

“Darhk. Damien Darhk…” Sara could watch Nyssa’s face go blank, only her nostrils flaring. “He made me watch, Nys. He… he killed you, with a flick of his wrist. I watched you die and I felt like he ripped my heart out… it felt so fucking real, Nyssa…” 

Under no circumstances Sara would have shown anyone else how much she was hurting over this. No one but Nyssa had ever witnessed her breaking down after she had gotten off that godforsaken island.

Nyssa wrapped her arms around Sara’s shaking body. Feeling the strong and not easily scared woman falling apart in her embrace made uneasy shivers run up and down her spine, not because she felt uncomfortable with the sudden display of emotion but because she knew that, to react like this, Sara had to have been shaken to the core. Nyssa placed her right hand protectively on the back of Sara’s head, gently stroking her hair and reassuring the blonde that she was okay, that she was alive and well and… here.

After some more moments wrapped in Nyssa’s embrace, Sara leaned back a bit, looking up into her face.

“No, Nyssa, you don’t understand. It felt… real. I didn’t know it was a dream until I woke up from my screams, I can usually tell, you know that. And even then… I wasn’t sure it was a dream, I… And it all started with… you saying you wanted to get your League clothing.”

She stared pleadingly into dark brown eyes. “I can’t let you go back there. I’m sorry. I can’t risk losing you like that.”

Nyssa slightly shook her head, pulling Sara back close to her chest. “You won’t lose me, Love. It’s okay, I’m right here.”

They stayed like that for a minute, until Nyssa opened her arms and took a step back, looking at Sara intently and stating, that she probably needed to tell her team about that potential threat.

The Captain knew that the other assassin was right. _If_ her dream had been more than a dream, _if_ it had been a warning, then the rest of the Legends deserved, needed, to know about it, too. She nodded and took a minute to steel herself and wipe away the tears on her face. She didn’t need anyone commenting on that. Then, Sara grabbed something from the fridge, and let Nyssa lead the way back to the team.

 

The Legends were sitting around waiting in various corners of the area. Nate, lost in thoughts, was seated on the steps leading up into the Captain’s office, Zari sat in one of the chairs in the front of the ship, legs draped over one arm rest, her back propped up against the other. Amaya stood next to her, leaned against another chair, her arms crossed in front of her chest, the two women talking silently. Ray was at the central console looking at some sort of blueprint and Mick leaned against the wall of the area that was closest to them. Everyone snapped to attention as soon as the two assassins stepped foot onto the bridge.

“Captain”, Ray exclaimed and added a careful: “You okay there..?”

“Ah, of course, you come back now. I was just about to get some beer…” Mick complained.

While Zari commented that it was too early for alcohol, Sara sent Mick a little smile and produced a bottle from the side of her body, tossing it over to him without spinning it too much and he skilfully caught the bottle one-handed, nodding with appreciation for his Captain, while Sara was already moving over to Ray.

“Thanks, Ray. I’m good.” Her voice was steady. “I need to tell you guys something. I don’t know if it means anything but it makes too much sense to be ignored.”

Everyone gathered around the central console.

“Gideon, when you monitor our dreams, do you record them as well or do you just like to watch?” Sara quipped in an attempt to release some tension. It worked, some chuckles floated in the air around them.

“I do not generally record dreams but since I am an artificial intelligence, all my monitoring is collecting data. I can recollect said data at any given time.” Gideon replied in her usual informative manner.

“So… could you convert your data into visuals?” Sara asked.

The holographic image of Gideon nodded once. “I have never performed a conversion like that but, technically, it should be possible. Do you want me to show your last dream?”

Sara hesitated and then pursed her lips thinking of how the night had ended.

“Not necessarily my last dream. I don’t know if I dreamed something else last night. The troubling one from last night, though. Yes. Can you do that?”

“Converting the files will take a moment but I believe so, yes.”

The Captain turned her attention to her team again, inhaled deeply and leaned forwards, resting her hands on top of the control panel, to give an introduction.

“Right, so... I had a really bad and scarily real dream last night, which is the reason I was upset earlier. If Gideon can actually show you what I saw, you might not be able to feel what I felt but you’ll get the picture. It’s probably going to look weird to you because you kind of have my point of view, depending on what the data offers, but this might help us out. Again, I don’t know if this is a real threat but _if_ it is, you are my team, and you deserve to know…”

“You’re being very cryptic, Captain”, Ray wondered aloud and Nate commented that it seemed like a nightmare from how Sara was reacting to it and he wasn’t a fan of horror movies.

Amaya gave Sara an encouraging smile.

“In my experience, dreams can convey messages and warnings, Sara. I think it’s wise to consider an especially vivid one in such a manner.”

Mick cleared his throat and all eyes turned to him. “Am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that we’re going to watch our boss’ dream?”

Sara slightly cocked her head in surprise. “Didn’t take you for the considerate type, Rory”

He shrugged and mumbled: “Just don’t wanna see something I can’t un-see.”

A small laugh fell from Sara’s lips when the rest of her team started mumbling things, too. “Come on, Mick, don’t tell me you wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall sometimes, we both know you’re jealous of my charms.”

Mick huffed in response and Nate jumped in: “Wait, what kind of genre is this going to be, though, for real..?”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Boys, if I wanted to show you porn, I’d ask one of you for your private collection. Also, I sure wouldn’t find that kind of a dream troubling and worth sharing with you lot.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, Sara noticed Nyssa touching her forehead as if to bury her face in the palm of her hand. She immediately let it drop back down with a slight shake of her head, though. Amaya had also gotten visibly uncomfortable with the whole conversation. Her face showed relief when Gideon interrupted the group’s banter.

“Legends, I have assembled a video file of Captain Lance’s dream. It is slowed down, so that you have the same experience of time as Captain Lance when she dreamed it. An average human’s brain works so fast while asleep that dreams might only last a few seconds to minutes although they might incorporate complex situations that feel like hours to the dreamer. Whenever the images are blurry or don’t seem to fit together, just remember that it is a dream sequence. Her subconscious does not work like a movie theatre.”

“Thanks for the heads up, Gideon”, Sara chuckled. “Now, if everyone got their popcorn at the ready, I guess we can start. Gideon: hit that play button.”

It was weird for Sara to see those images again. They looked different than before, she realized, because she didn’t have 360° vision now. Everything was compressed into 2D visuals. The sounds resonating from the bridge’s metal walls we’re just as clear as they had been in Sara’s dream, though. Nyssa voicing her request in the beginning, the team talking about their plan… Sara saw Nyssa’s back go rigid when she realized she had uttered the same words as Sara’s imaginary version of her had the night before and she caught her worried gaze. Sometimes, the scenes were strangely coloured or the peripheries of the visuals were blurry as if her brain didn’t pay too much attention to the background. The fight scenes were hectic, confusing, as if she had been carrying an action camera on her head. Mick huffed when his dream version got knocked out. There was chaos in the hallway. Everyone stared at the movie playing and Sara noticed Nate clenching his arm, instinctively turning his fist into steel, when Amaya’s name echoed around them. The video seemed to be glitching at the moment that Sara clearly remembered someone hitting her on the back of her head. There was a swirl of colours and something sparkling, which was as close to the stars Sara had seen as possible, and then blood splattered after Sara’s hands flew across the screen and this time, Mick let out an approving hum. It looked like a weird ego shooter video game to Sara. For a moment, everyone watched Nyssa fighting with ease, elegance in her movements and deadly precision in her punches and kicks. Just when the actual Nyssa moved her mouth closer to Sara’s ear, whispering: “You flatter me again, Beloved”, a murmur went through the crowd, as Sara’s view focused in on Damien Darhk.

Sara knew the idiom _to see red_ but she didn’t realize her dream visuals had actually taken a reddish stain until she watched knives flying towards Darhk’s face. When she joined Nyssa in combat, and the image focused on the face of the guy she just stabbed in the back, Nate drew in a sharp breath.

“That’s –”

Sara nodded. “Lindman, yeah…”

Darhk’s slow clap and words made the team collectively grit their teeth. Sara covered her mouth with her hand, knowing what all of this would lead to, seeing Darhk lifting up Nyssa’s fighting body into the air. Again, the images blurred, as Sara crashed into the ceiling and back onto the ground, the room spinning. An empathetic moan escaped Zari’s lips and Ray whispered “ouch” when Sara’s vision focused on her shattered, bloody leg, sprawled out underneath her in a weird angle.

The real Nyssa moved a few inches closer to Sara, offering her presence without pushing it onto her, while her dream-self was clutching her throat, trying to pry Darhk’s invisible grip away from her windpipe.

His voice echoed around the Legends and an icy shiver ran down Sara’s spine.

_“Look at what I set up for you.”_

The images stayed mostly blurry now, a sharp focus only being on Darhk and Nyssa, respectively, whenever Sara looked from one to the other. There was no background motion, nothing but close ups and words, too many words, and silence and pleading, too much silent pleading. The void seemed to stretch out for an eternity as Darhk’s words almost faded into the background, the sole focus now being on the assassin’s dark eyes, wide with both angry pride and fear, not for her own life, but for Sara’s. Suddenly, the view zoomed out, having both Nyssa and Darhk in the same frame for once. For a second, everything and everyone froze. Sara averted her gaze from the video, she didn’t need to see it again. She could see it burned into her brain cells.

With a flick of his wrist, Damien Darhk broke Nyssa’s neck.

In slow motion, the lifeless assassin fell to the ground with a thud - and the holographic screen went black, Sara’s ear-splitting scream resounding from the walls around them.


	13. Plans Can Change

Shock spread among them and everyone stared at the now black but still flickering holograph. When Sara’s scream finally subsided, it was eerily quiet and Sara looked around into six pairs of wide eyes.

“Well, that was… disturbing” Ray mumbled, still shocked over what he had just watched.

“I hate that bastard”, Mick growled under his breath.

Zari swallowed hard and admitted that she, too, needed a drink now. Mick agreed and Nate stopped chewing on his lip to suggest they could all use one and should maybe take this to the galley. Approving hums came from the others and they started to move away from the console.

Nyssa unfroze finally and reached for Sara’s hand, who met her halfway, lacing their fingers together. They locked gazes and there was despair in the air but also a heavy weight of gratitude. There was nothing to say, their eyes said enough.

After a moment, they followed the rest of the crew off the bridge in silence.

 

“Is anyone going to comment on the fact that we basically just got up and are already drinking..?” Amaya asked around but everyone just shook their head. Nyssa was the only one to decline the liquor Zari passed around.

“You deserve it, hot one. You just died…” Mick noted and Sara suddenly felt tired, too tired. She felt too tired to lecture him about respect, to discuss anything, to come up with a plan, to protect her team, to protect the woman she loved, to kill Damien Darhk, she just felt too tired to exist at the moment. Nyssa didn’t say anything either and just declined again by shaking her head. Mick shrugged and took another shot himself.

After a while of everyone being lost in their own thoughts, Amaya cleared her throat.

“What can we do? I think we can all agree that this is a very weird dream if it is just a weird dream, right?”

Nate wrinkled his forehead. “You think it’s real? Like… a prophecy or something?”

Amaya shook her head slightly. “Not necessarily a prophecy as in ‘this is definitely going to happen’. But I am pretty sure it’s a warning and we should treat it as such.”

“It kinda does make sense, from what I collected”, Zari agreed thoughtfully. “I mean, nothing really surprises me anymore after all the weird shit I’ve seen since I’ve met you people. I don’t really know the guy but I already know he’s bad news, although I only met him very briefly. He has a personal quarrel with Sara, too. And it would explain how Nyssa got ‘accidentally’” – she added air quotation marks – “plucked from the timeline and sent into the future. It all adds up, don’t you think..?”

Nate still didn’t look convinced but he chose not to comment any further.

“So…” Ray chimed in, “We have to decide what to do. Do we take it as a threat? Not only for Nyssa, but for all of us? Do we think that Darhk is coming after Sara?”

“I don’t know but he certainly likes to get in our way”, Zari summarized.

“Or, well, we get in his way. I mean, we try to keep him from turning the world into his personal playground, so that makes us walking targets. And he knows that I’m not afraid to die, I’ve done that, too often, and I’m still here. The only way he can hurt me is by hurting any one of you guys”, Sara explained and then stated matter-of-factly: “And he knows he could hurt me most by hurting Nyssa.”

The brunette looked up and caught Sara’s gaze.

“You need to take me back to 2019, Sara…” Nyssa’s voice was pleading. “I can defend myself but as long as I’m with you, we’re liabilities to each other.”

Sara shook her head no. “He found you once and just threw you through time and space, putting you exactly where he wanted you to be, where he wanted me to be.”

“We don’t even know that, though. He might not be responsible after all”, Nate argued.

“Well, I’m not willing to risk my team on the off chance that all of this is just great coincidence”, Sara declared.

“Okay, we’re not getting any further with this.” Zari turned to Nyssa. “Question 1): Do you still need your suit? Can we get around that..?”

Nyssa made eye contact with Sara. “I would like to get it back, if at all possible. But I do not want to put any one of you at risk.”

Sara clenched her jaw but didn’t say anything.

“Well, if we believe that Sara’s dream was a warning, I don’t see a way we could get into the building undetected. I think the plan our dream-selves made was a good one, it just failed”, Amaya touched her totem in thought.

“Big time”, Mick added.

“What if we all go, we’d have more manpower, Gideon could fly the ship somewhere safe and come back later, if it turns out to be a trap, I could maybe get Darhk again, like we did with the Vikings, you know..?” Nate seemed confident.

“Nathaniel, he knows about your powers now, you won’t fool him twice…” Amaya made a point.

“Also the way we hurt his daughter back there… he’s not gonna be particularly glad to see any of us.” Zari added.

Mick wriggled his eyebrows and said: “We could call Agent Hotshot to help us out, right, boss?”

Sara glared at him and warningly lifted an eyebrow, which he ignored.

“What, you’re not on speaking terms? Can I have a talk with her then..?” He looked almost hopeful.

“Mick… Shut. Your. Mouth.” Sara growled and thankfully, before the situation could get any more out of hand, Nate placed a hand on Mick’s shoulder saying: “Time to stop if you value your extremities, buddy, believe me, I’m speaking from experience here.” He shuddered. “Good thing I was on drugs, I’d probably have my pants otherwise”, he mumbled to himself and Zari chuckled.

Mick shrugged off Nate’s hand and lifted up his in a sign of surrender. “Sorry, boss”, he rasped.

The Captain sighed. They’d never get this figured out if she couldn’t keep her head cool. She thought for a second and then decided: “We can’t call Agent Sharpe, she’s not our general back up, just because she might have helped us out before.”

“Saved our asses, kinda” Zari admitted and Sara crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“I can shrink, fly in, shrink the assassin suit, get it back here and un-shrink it…?” Ray suggested suddenly, and for once, Sara didn’t have the urge to roll her eyes. That was actually not a bad idea. Certainly more useful than the rest of them.

“Okay, I guess that could work. If they can’t see you, they can’t stop you”, Sara thought aloud. “But, if he has a magical barrier like in the dream, you won’t get through it either, no matter how small you are…”

“He would not have to get to Mr. Darhk.” Nyssa spoke up at once, all eyes turning towards her. “My suit is stashed in a hidden chamber in the South wall of the office, relatively close to the entrance. I believe Mr. Palmer could fly into the vault, shrink the suit inside, take it and get out with it without them knowing he was there. They might stay waiting for us to walk into their trap while we are already long gone.”

“That… sounds manageable…” Sara admitted through her teeth. There were a few seconds of silence. Then, she added: “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy though. Is there any other reason why you’d go back to that office with us? Other than your suit, I mean..?”

Nyssa shook her head, confused. “No, there is nothing there for me.”

“Except for a few billion dollars…” Mick mumbled.

Sara chose to ignore him for the sake of her argument. “Well, see. So, if this is actually a trap, he must know about your suit. He knows about how important it is to you and that you might want to come back for it. If there is nothing else there, why would he set a trap with no bait..?”

“You are right, Ta-er al-Sahfer, good thinking…” Nyssa smiled at her apologetically.

“Wait, who?” Zari questioned and Amaya explained silently while the others were continuing their conversation.

“So, there is no way we can get her suit?” Ray asked Sara and she lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

“I think it’s too risky. Listen, Nyssa, I know what it means to you but… Can we just have Gideon print a new suit for you? You can get an exact replica, you can get a new one with a new design, whatever you want. I know it won’t have all the memories but - Just… I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”

Nyssa nodded in agreement. “Okay. I understand.”

Sara let out a relieved breath.

“Great, question 1) is answered then. Leads us to question 2). Where do you want us to take you?” Zari took the main conversation back into her hands.

“May I..?” Nate requested carefully and Sara braced herself for another rant about being assassinated in your sleep, but nodded sharply.

Nate swallowed and then actually surprised the group by explaining: “I need to apologize. I was out of line the other day. I guess the thought of having another trained killer on board, one that I don’t know I can trust with my life… It scared me”, he waved his hand around awkwardly. “But with this dream and all… I know how it feels to be afraid to lose someone. And I understand that Sara can’t risk losing you, Nyssa.” He looked at the brunette who lifted her chin up a bit in response and then nodded slowly, just once.

 “Okay, first of all I’m not afraid, I just protect my people”, Sara stated, arms still crossed in front of her chest, and then caught Nate’s gaze.

“I saw it in your eyes, Sara, and it’s okay to be scared, you know”, he insisted.

“I’m not scared.”

“No, not for you, you’re not. But for Nyssa.”

Sara briefly stared at him in surprise, remembering how she had used the exact same argument to prevent Alex Danvers from doing something stupid.

Sara knew he was right, but decided to play it down anyways, so she huffed. “If you reach any harder you’ll dislocate your arm.” She pursed her lips. “But do go on.”

He gave her a small smile and cleared his throat. “I think Sara is right, it makes too much sense that it was Darhk who placed Nyssa in the future. Let’s just assume that for whatever reason, her dream was a warning. That means Darhk has found her before. I can’t believe I’m suggesting this – I think she should stay here until we know Darhk isn’t a risk.”

Sara’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, as did Amaya’s and Zari’s.

Mick just said: “I second that, another hottie around is a good enough argument for me” and Sara, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance, pinned a mental note saying _Break his finger a little_.

“Okay, Mick. I know we usually get along really well, but if you want to keep your tongue I suggest you keep it in check now” she stated calmly. Then she turned towards Nyssa and the rest of the team.

“What do you think of Nate’s suggestion, Nyssa? It’s your life. Would you feel comfortable being around us for a while before we get Darhk under control and take you back to 2019?” There was no pleading, nothing suggestive or rhetorical about the question. She wanted Nyssa to answer in all honesty.

Nyssa thought for a moment. Then she looked into the Legends’ faces, one after the other, finally looking at Nate.

“Thank you, Mr. Heywood. I accept your apology and I appreciate the offer.” She cast another look around. “Is there anyone here who is opposed to this idea? I do not mean to do any of you harm or make you feel uncomfortable.”

The team shared a few looks. Then Zari shook her head and shrugged and Ray said he really wanted Sara to be happy so he’d be okay with the idea. Sara blushed a little and rolled her eyes to mask that when Amaya said that she would like to hear more of Nyssa’s stories and actually felt like they could use a pair of extra hands every now and then.

“If you trained Sara and can still fight like Sara dreamed you can… I’m sure there’s a place for you here”, she smiled at the other brunette.

“Thank you, Ms. Jiwe. Sara’s dream flattered me, but I do know how to fight. I am an assassin after all.” Nyssa returned Amaya’s smile and finally, she looked at Sara. She didn’t have to ask.

“Yes, Nyssa, I’d… Just - I know you want to go back but you’re at risk as long as Darhk is out there and believe me, having you not by my side but back in 2019 on your mountain is going to be more of a distraction than having you fight alongside my team could ever be a liability.” Her gaze was open and cut through Nyssa’s hesitation like a warm fire dispels the cold of a winter day.

“If I agree to stay here, to temporarily become part of your team… I need you to promise me two things” Nyssa spoke clearly, articulate as ever.

Sara nodded and was tempted to say “Anything” but bit back the word to not sound desperate and also because she had promised that once and she didn’t want to ever break a promise to Nyssa again.

“I need to get back to my time. You have to give me your word to return me there.”

“You have it, Nyssa.” Sara agreed.

“And Damien Darhk has to die. For good.” Nyssa wore a steely expression on her face, her eyes shining dark and dangerous. In that moment, everyone could see the former Heir to the Demon standing in their midst.

Sara inhaled deeply, her heart beating faster, a little flutter in her stomach reminding her that this was the woman she fell in love with all those years ago.

“I promise”, Sara swore and for once, not a single one of her team members seemed to be the least opposed to killing someone.

“It’s a pleasure to become part of your team, Captain.” Nyssa gave Sara a lopsided grin and held out her hand to the blonde, tension vanishing into thin air. Sara bit back a laugh and, although not grinning, grabbed Nyssa’s wrist with her dimples on full display.

“On behalf of my team, I welcome you to the Legends, Ms. Raatko. Welcome aboard the Waverider.”

Zari rolled her eyes and mocked: “I already regret my decision” at the same time that Ray expressed: “Well, _I_ am the captain of _that_ ship.”

Various welcoming words floated through the room.

Amaya smiled at the two women with genuine approval and finally Nate sighed.

“Okay, now that we have one more team member, I think we could maybe take what we have to our advantage and hunt down Darhk instead of letting him hunt us…?”

Nyssa let go of Sara’s wrist and nodded towards Nate and Sara mirrored her.

“Gideon”, Sara called out. “Can you find Damien Darhk for us, let’s say, sometime between 2019 and 2035?”

Gideon’s voice resounded from the galley walls.

“It appears he will buy an estate close to Milan in 2023. Traffic cameras catch his face multiple times in June 2023. Welcome to the Legends, again, Ms. Raatko.”

Nyssa smiled softly.

“Now, Milan sounds like a good place to start. I can freshen up my Italian a bit and some sunshine will be good for all of us.” Sara grinned, suddenly feeling energized. She turned around and left for the bridge, her team following suit.

“Gideon, put the coordinates in and everyone else take a seat and strap in, it’s about to get hot. Also, Nyssa, you might struggle a bit with the first few bigger time-jumps, but you’ll get used to it.”

She sat down in her Captain’s chair just as a quake went through the ship and a deafening metal screeching sound resonated around them.

“Gideon! What the hells happened?!” Sara shouted and spun her chair around to check on her team. They seemed slightly disoriented but otherwise alright.

“It appears we are under attack.” Gideon stated.

“You don’t say!” Sara spat and added: “Any more useful information?”

The AI answered: “Two ships just entered the temporal zone. They do not wear any marks that I can identify.”

Sara shook her head and turned her chair back around to the front window. Growling under her breath, she uttered: “They’re shooting at us, that’s all the identification I need.”

After the next sound of an explosion, Sara shouted over her shoulder for everyone to sit down and strap in for real, _now_. She didn’t wait for a response but just hoped for the best.

“Let’s take those suckers down” she mumbled and amplified: “Put more energy on the shields, Gideon, we’re going to need them!”

“Right away, Captain.”

Sara grinned to herself as she manoeuvred the ship around in the temporal zone.

 “Gideon, some music, please, if you don’t mind. I really hope you’re wearing your dancing shoes today because we’ll show those goons how to move that ass”, Sara said with a smirk, that well-known excitement over a good hunt bubbling in her stomach.

“May I remind you, Captain, that I am the Artificial Intelligence of this timeship and therefore not wearing shoes?” Gideon replied and Sara let out an amused chuckle as a song started playing.

_You take me to the top, I’m ready for whatever it takes - ‘cause I love the adrenaline in my veins._

“Guess I’ll have to make them dance enough for the both of us then”, she shrugged and called over her shoulder for everyone to hold on tight as she pulled hard on the lever that controlled her ship’s speed.

“So glad we had Jax modify our weaponry”, the Captain mumbled and hit a few buttons, followed by sounds of explosions from the other ships.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. It might get a little bit bumpy here, so, please – ” another explosion followed, “remain – ” more explosions and a hard quake in their ship, “seated!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this: Drink some water :)


	14. Complications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, life has been hectic. I hope you'll like this one, too.

“Captain!” Ray shouted for the third time. “Are you sure this is not another misunderstanding with the time bureau?!”

Mick grumbled: “Is blondie shooting at us again…?”

“I know you just said we wouldn’t call her but… could we maybe call her?!” Amaya seemed tense.

“Pretty sure we were on good terms last time we parted ways - but let me check”, Sara finally responded while pulling hard on the speed lever. Her brows furrowed in concentration, she told Gideon to open direct verbal communication to Agent Sharpe’s office. Another quake went through the ship and Gideon chose to give a status update before opening communication with the time bureau.

“According to my calculations, the Waverider’s shields can withstand the blasts for another 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Blasts after the ship’s shields are down might result in immediate destruction or dropping out the temporal zone, falling through time and space, and landing in an unknown location.”

“Shit. Okay, Gideon. Kill the music. Ava, now.”

“Right away, Captain.”

A second later, a familiar voice echoed around them.

“Sara. Don’t tell me you miss me.”

Sara blushed a little bit and before Ava Sharpe could add anything else that would put them in a weird situation, she hurried to speak up.

“Ava, tell me this isn’t you shooting at us again!” Her words were accompanied by another explosion. _Dammit._

“What?!”

“My team is under attack and I have important cargo on board, so if this is you people, I suggest you knock it off!” Sara grew impatient.

“Agent Sharpe, now would be a good time!” Ray shouted from the back seat and Gideon chose to give an update on her calculations.

“1 minute 30 seconds to destruction.”

“Wow, thanks Gideon.” Sara spat.

“Sara, we need to jump”, Nate suggested at the same time that Mick said: “Shoot ‘em down, boss!”

“Guys, shut it! AVA!” Sara shouted and the other woman hurried to say that she didn’t even see the Waverider on her monitors.

“Temporal zone”, Sara offered and pressed a few more buttons. Through the front window, the team watched as one of the two timeships exploded into thousands of pieces.

“That’s right!” Mick sounded almost enthusiastic and Zari let out a joyful “yesss!”

“I have no ships deployed to engage with anyone, all the time bureau ships are accounted for, I can’t see you anywhere, Sara, it seems like you’re cloaked. It’s not official time bureau business, I swear”, Agent Sharpe sounded distressed.

“40 seconds.”

“Shit, alright, talk soon”, Sara ended their conversation and commanded: “Gideon, wherever there is no one around, whenever. Now. Hold on tight, guys!”

A rumble went through the ship and for a moment, Sara felt like everything was spinning, until the orange whirling around them was replaced by clear blue sky.

Gideon landed the ship smoothly in the middle of a savannah.

 

Team Legends let out a collective sigh.

“What the hack…” Zari mumbled and Sara pressed her fingers against her temples.

“Is everyone okay?” She turned around in her seat, lifting up the bars strapping her in.

“Yeah, we’re okay I think”, Nate replied and Amaya, looking over to the brunette who wore a slightly disoriented expression on her face, asked carefully: “What about Nyssa..?”

“How are you, Nyssa?” Sara asked as well and Nyssa nodded.

“Dobro. Kako si ti?” Her eyes widened when the corners of Sara’s mouth curled up into a grin. “Što se dogodilo??”

“It’s okay, Nyssa, you’re experiencing side effects from the time travel. Linguistical disorientation, or in this case: you’re speaking Croatian.”

Nyssa looked confused. “Ne razumijem.”

“That’s alright, it’s gonna wear off soon. Sometimes, people not used to time jumps speak gibberish, sometimes different languages, sometimes they can’t speak at all… Our bodies get used to it, though. You’ll see. Is everything else okay?”

“Da…”

“What is she saying?” Mick wanted to know and Zari answered: “She’s just confused and wants to know what happened and why she’s speaking a different language. Other than that she’s okay.”

“Wait, I didn’t know you speak Croatian”, Amaya was surprised.

“Well, I don’t. Not really. I mean, some former friends of mine, kids I grew up with, they were from Serbia and I learned their language - kind of by the way, I guess. It’s really similar to Croatian. I can’t speak it anymore, though. But I understand the basics.” Zari shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

“No, it’s something”, Sara pursed her lips. “It’s actually pretty cool.”

"Yeah Z, Captain's right, seems like there's a lot we don't know about you, yet", Ray mused. "Which is kind of unfair, given that you've basically gotten to know every little thing about us in that alleged time loop experience."

Clearly not wanting to go into that conversation again, Nate questioned: “Alright, Gideon, give us the status. How bad is it..?”

Gideon’s voice echoed from the walls around them.

“Ship’s shields are down to 10%, the weapon systems are damaged but still functional enough to protect the ship for now. There are no major damages to the ship, since the shields absorbed most of the incoming fire. However, I suggest getting the necessary repairs done before time jumping again, as I cannot with certainty say that the shields are going to endure another time jump. I believe that Dr. Palmer and I will be able to get the essential system repairs done, but the physical damage will have to be fixed by a mechanic.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad, although being stuck here isn’t really gonna help us – especially since it doesn’t look like we have a good mechanic around here”, Sara gestured towards the beautiful landscape outside. “Actually, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone around.”

“You asked me to take you somewhere with no one around, did you not”, Gideon retorted and the Captain lifted an eyebrow.

“Are you getting cocky, Gideon…?”

“You must be rubbing off on me, Captain”, the AI replied and laughter filled the bridge.

“Alright”, Sara shook her head grinning. “You got me. So, where and when are we?”

As it turned out, the AI had taken them to the Kingdom of Kongo in 1398. The biggest parts of the country were untouched landscapes and the probability of someone stumbling across an uncloaked timeship while repairs were being done was very slim. Sara dismissed her team and told them to be careful, stay close to the ship and, if going for a walk, go with at least one other person. Just because no one from the Kingdom of Kongo would accidentally come across the ship, it didn’t mean no one would find them if they were searching. They had just been attacked after all.

“I’ll have to call Agent Sharpe again - before she sends time bureau ships our way”, Sara grumbled and walked over to the captain’s area. As she walked past Nyssa, they locked gazes for a moment.

“Are you gonna be fine for now?” Sara asked and Nyssa nodded with a little smile.

“Yes”, she said and then, realizing that she was speaking English again, added: “I will go for a walk around the ship and meditate by that tree over there, if that’s okay”, she said and pointed over to the front window.

“Just be aware of your surroundings”, Sara smiled back at her and briefly touched her arm, before she walked over to the screen.

Gideon opened communications once more and Sara smiled at the agent in her typical time bureau suit.

“Hey there, Sharpe, no need to send an armada”, she quipped and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Sara. Are you okay?!” Ava looked as distressed as she had sounded before and Sara briefly wondered why the agent would worry so much.

She sighed and with a wave of her hand answered that all of them were fine, just stranded in the past with a damaged ship although she wanted to be in 2023 hunting down Darhk.

Ava looked even more concerned now. “Why would you go after him? You’ll probably see him soon enough and last time you crossed paths, he took you somewhere… else.”

Sara pursed her lips. “Yeah, but I’m tired of looking over my shoulder. He’s not gonna take anyone else from me. I need to make sure my team is safe and I don’t want him showing up ruining Christmas or any other day of the year ever again.”

Ava fiddled with her time courier, looking down at it, and Sara almost missed her saying: “Would hate to see you get hurt, y’know…”

She cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Are you growing soft on me, Sharpe..?”

Her head shot up at the question and she huffed dramatically. “Pah, you wish, Lance. I obviously still don’t like you.”

“The feeling’s mutual, Agent Sharpe, don’t get your hopes up for that to change.”

“I don’t care.”

“Good”

“Good.”

There was a moment of silence and neither woman could fight back a grin anymore.

“Wow, we’re terrible”, Sara laughed and the agent shrugged.

After collecting her thoughts for a second, she wondered: “You did say something about needing a glass of wine the other day… Guess you have other matters on your mind at the moment..?”

There was uncertainty in Ava’s voice and Sara looked at her apologetically.

“Ava, I’m – sorry, there’s a lot going on right now…” She was actually sorry. She would have liked to go for a drink or two with the taller woman, among other things.

Ava nodded and inhaled deeply. “Yeah, no, sure, obviously, no big deal, maybe some other time, whenever, I don’t care.”

Knowing, there was nothing she could say to change the situation, Sara just gave her a lopsided smile and hoped the agent would change topics.

“Anyways, so you’re stuck in the past and need to get to the future?” Ava asked a second later, a little too vigorously, and Sara nodded affirmatively.

“Yup.”

“Are you and your team going to wrack havoc in 2023 as soon as possible then..?” Ava questioned, an eyebrow raised at Sara.

Sara uncrossed her arms and quipped: “Sometimes, we screw things up for the better”.

“Sounds about right. I’m sending someone over to make the necessary repairs, Sara”, Ava promised. “Then, you can deal with Darhk.”

“Thanks, Ava, I would say I don’t need your help but…” Sara trailed off smiling softly at the woman on the screen and shrugged.

“Yeah, I understand. You need my help.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Ava laughed. “It’s okay, I’ve gotten used to you needing me by now –“ a flashing light illuminated the captain’s area for a second and Ava Sharpe, dressed in a navy blue suit and her hair pulled back into a tight bun, stepped onto the Waverider.

Sara turned around and greeted the woman with a grin, raising an eyebrow. “When you said you’d send someone over, I didn’t expect that someone to be you, Agent.”

Ava lifted her arms in a shrugging motion.

“I can’t do anything about you constantly underestimating me.”

The Captain huffed. “Right back at’cha”

“So, where do you need me..?” she cocked an eyebrow suggestively and Sara bit back a grin. A few weeks ago, that look would’ve done things to her. _Don’t kid yourself._ It still made her feel things. Just not in the same intensity as before. Sara subtly cleared her throat.

“Gideon said that there’s a hydraulic leak in the cargo bay door. It still opens and closes, but it’s way slower than usual. And I kinda like my doors to shut properly in case of emergency.”

Ava nodded, shrugged off her dark blue jacket and placed it over the back of one of the armchairs to her left. Then, her fingers began unbuttoning her white blouse. For a split-second, Sara’s eyes widened with surprise, heat creeping up her cheeks, and she quickly turned around. This wasn’t exactly how she pictured herself spending her time today.

“Relax”, Ava laughed. “I just don’t need grease on my blouse. I’m wearing a tank top underneath, you can turn around.”

The Captain swallowed and slowly turned to face the agent, who just opened the last button of her blouse.

Ava smirked at her, the pink shade of her face betraying her cool exterior, and she placed her blouse on top of her jacket. “Didn’t think you’d mind, Ms. Lance…”

Sara couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over the other woman’s toned arms. She briefly wetted her lips with her tongue, then tore her gaze from the agent’s body and cleared her throat, less subtly this time.

“Well, it’s not that I mind really, it’s just… I have things to take care of at the moment. Nothing wrong with…. that”, she gestured up and down Ava’s body and the other blonde chuckled.

“Thanks for that delightful compliment. Now… lead the way..?”

Sara could hear the grin in her tone as she walked past the taller woman to show her to the cargo bay.

On her way out, her gaze fell through the Waverider’s front window and on Nyssa sitting cross-legged in the shadow of a knotted tree, eyes closed and a perfectly calm exterior.

Sara paused when she felt a little tuck in her heart and realized that there could be even more complications ahead.

“So… she’s your important cargo, huh?” Ava’s eyes had followed Sara’s gaze through the front window. _Damn, this woman was attentive._ Sara inhaled deeply and looked over to the time bureau agent.

“We have a lot of history”, she shrugged, trying to mask with indifference the warmth that had spread through her body while looking at Nyssa.

“It’s okay, Sara, you don’t have to explain yourself”, Ava replied, seemingly unfazed herself, but Sara detected a hint of hurt in her demeanour.

And for some strange reason, she wanted to drop the act and explain.

“I didn’t think I was ever gonna see her again. I thought about going back to her. A lot. But I couldn’t leave my team. And you turned out to be not so bad after all so… Then, she was dropped in front of my feet in 2035 New York and now I’m stuck in 1398 Africa with my team and her and… you’re my mechanic. When did life get this weird? Oh wait, right, it has never not been weird.” Sara laughed, but it sounded hollow. “Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I don’t do feelings.”

Ava chuckled. “You sure feel a lot of things for someone who doesn’t do feelings.”

The two of them looked at the brunette who still hadn’t moved an inch.

“She’s beautiful”, Ava finally broke the silence and Sara raised an eyebrow at her.

Ava shrugged. “What? I have eyes.”

“Yeah, sure.” Sara bit back a smile.

Turning serious, she asked: “This isn’t gonna be a thing, is it..? Are we gonna be weird now, too?”

The agent pursed her lips and furrowed her brows.

“Well, you sure are a weirdo, Lance”, she retorted and Sara playfully punched her in her arm.

“Come on, I’ll show you the cargo bay door, mechanic.”


	15. Not What It Looks Like

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for keeping you guys waiting for so long! I'm trying my best here but I just started a new teaching job mid-February and it really keeps me on my feet. I hope you can forgive me for not posting as regularly... I'm trying. Now, have fun with the new chapter and let me know if you think I got it right :)

It turned out Ava was actually a really good mechanic. She had the leak fixed within half an hour and Sara would tell a lie if she said she hadn’t enjoyed watching the agent work, her hands greasy and little droplets of sweat running down her neck. Sara realized that it had definitely been too long since she had been with another woman if her body reacted like this to a little bit of sweat. On the other hand, it was kinda hot. _Stop this_ , Sara scolded herself and turned her attention back to the knife she was sharpening.

“Done”, Ava said, clearly content with her work. “It’s been a while since I got to work with my hands like that.”

Sara laughed and raised her eyebrows, causing Ava to roll her eyes.

“Remind me again why I didn’t leave you in that other dimension…”, she mumbled but took the piece of cloth from Sara to wipe her hands clean and afterwards grabbed the hand Sara offered her to get up from her knees.

“Gideon, what’s the status..?” Sara asked the AI.

“It appears Agent Sharpe did indeed repair the hydraulic system in the door. Mr. Palmer and I have restored the necessary systems to jump back into the temporal zone. The weaponry on the Waverider’s right flank is still not usable, so I advise not to get into another fight any time soon, Captain.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Were you planning on spending the day with Ms. Sharpe instead? Or would you want to go to the medical bay?” Gideon questioned and Sara bit her bottom lip for a moment before carefully replying:

“Why would I need to go to the med bay?”

She realized what Gideon was about to say before she even answered and raised her hand in a motion to stop her but it was too late for that.

“I detected concerning irregularities in your heartbeat while you were watching Agent Sharpe. Your pulse quickened, your blood pressure – “

“GIDEON! That’s more than enough, thank you!!”

Sara buried her face in the palm of her hand and mumbled something unintelligible.

A few seconds ticked by and finally, Sara looked over to Ava, who, surprisingly, looked just as uncomfortable, although a little flattered, as the captain herself.

“Can we…”

“Not talk about this? Ever?” Ava finished Sara’s question and nodded. “Definitely. Otherwise this would become awkward and we don’t want that.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I mean, we don’t even like each other.”

Sara sighed and shook her head. “I do like you Ava. I just…”

“I know. It’s fine. We’re adults, we can adult our way through this. You’ve got important cargo after all.” There was a hint of sadness in the sincerity in Ava’s eyes and Sara smiled softly.

“I do.”

“Well, I should get going anyway, I need to order some people around and you have a job to do, hunting down Darhk and all”, Ava wrapped up their conversation before it could get any more intense or sad.

They went back to the bridge and Ava got her clothes from the captain’s area.

She was just buttoning up her blouse as Sara felt Nyssa’s presence behind her. Her heart sank to her stomach realizing that this had to look very different from the actual situation and sure enough, when she turned around to face the assassin, she was met with a perfectly calm poker face.

“Captain Lance. I am sorry for the intrusion.”

“Nyssa… I’m – “, Sara wasn’t sure what to say. ‘It’s not what it looks like’ certainly wouldn’t help.

Ava stood awkwardly behind Sara, fingers frozen mid-buttoning up her blouse. Nyssa coolly let her gaze wander over her and a familiar aura suddenly surrounded the Demon’s Head. She stepped around Sara and all the blonde was able to do was stand and stare.

“I am Nyssa Raatko, former Ra’s al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins, Head of the Demon, now member of Captain Lance’s Team Legends”, Nyssa introduced herself to Ava and stood tall in front of her.

Both women were almost the same height, Ava was probably even an inch taller than Nyssa, but Nyssa’s presence demanded respect and it took a moment for the time bureau agent to adjust to the situation.

She inhaled deeply and straightened her back, then offering a hand to Nyssa while saying: “Agent Ava Sharpe, leading Time Bureau official in charge, currently on the Waverider to get Captain Lance’s team out of 1398. And since you seem to be part of that team – I’m at your service.”

Sara stared at the situation unfolding in front of her eyes. Nyssa slowly reached for Ava’s hand and Sara could see Ava’s jaw clench while otherwise not showing any reaction to the strong grip. This was surreal. Weird. And hot at the same time. But mostly just weird. Both women trying to intimidate each other all the while trying to not act hostile… Sara cleared her throat deciding to end this sticky situation.

“Okay, I think I’ve had enough of this… tension for now. Nyssa, this is Ava, Ava, this is Nyssa. We don’t need the rest of the titles here. Also, I’m not ‘Captain Lance’ to either of you and it feels really weird to hear you say that.”

After a few more seconds of intense eye contact, Nyssa let go of Ava’s hand, averted her gaze and looked over to Sara, gaze softening at once.

“I am sorry, I did not mean to be disrespectful”, she said apologetically.

Sara drew in a deep breath.

“You weren’t, it’s fine. Ava was just leaving for the Time Bureau, she fixed the hydraulic leak in the cargo bay door.”

Nyssa nodded slowly. “I see, hence, the blouse. It seems, I unfortunately jumped to conclusions. I need to apologize, Agent Sharpe.” Her gaze was more open this time. Not quite friendly but not as tense anymore and Ava nodded, visibly relieved.

“Yeah, no problem, I can see why that would happen.” She waved her hand awkwardly. “Anyways, I should really get going now”, she added and put on her jacket.

“You should probably…” Sara motioned to Ava’s blouse. “…finish buttoning that, otherwise there might be more misunderstandings”, she mumbled and Ava blushed.

“Right, thank you.”

She fixed the last three buttons and hastily waved her goodbye at the two assassins.

“See you around, Sara. Ms. Raatko.”

Fiddling with her time courier, she opened a portal back to the time bureau and was gone a second later.

 

“Good thing that wasn’t awkward at all”, Sara mumbled to herself, but of course, Nyssa heard her.

“Sara, I am sorry to have embarrassed you, that was not my intention.”

“It’s alright, Nyssa, I probably would’ve reacted in a similar manner, if I’m being honest…”

“That still does not justify my behaviour. I have no intention to treat you as my property or anything the like. You are not bound to me and you do not have to justify any attraction or action to me either”, the brunette emphasized.

Sara gave her a self-conscious smirk not many people would get to see.

“Well, then I won’t pretend I haven’t thought about her that way, she’s actually pretty... interesting. Don’t tell anyone I said that. But… you’re here now, Nys, and you’re… you. I can’t – ugh, I don’t know, can we not talk about this?”

Nyssa was just opening her mouth to reply something, when a breathless Nate came running onto the bridge, shouting for Sara.

“Boss! Boss! We have a problem, there’s – “

“ – the other timeship”, Ray finished his sentence, out of breath as well from running after Nate.

“Where? What happened? Where is the rest of the team?” Sara’s ‘captain mode’ was turned back on within the blink of an eye. “Gideon.”

“Yes, Captain. It appears the timeship you did not manage to blow up just landed about 500 feet east from here. No active weapon systems, no communication, yet. No one has left the ship. Ms. Jiwe and Ms. Tomaz are currently in the library, Mr. Rory is asleep in his quarters.”

“Tell them to get here ASAP. And let me know as soon as there’s any change whatsoever in the other – ”

“Captain Lance, someone is trying to open communications with the Waverider. It might very well be the crew of the unidentified timeship”, Gideon interrupted.

“Oh great”, Sara mumbled and Ray added: “Let’s hope it’s not Darhk…”

Sara marched back over to the big screen and signalled her team to be quiet. Straightening up her back, lifting up her chin, she drew in a deep breath collecting every bit of her authority and told Gideon to let the call go through.

A moment later, the screen flickered and upon realizing who she was looking at, Sara’s gaze went from cold to shocked.

Behind her, Amaya and Zari came running onto the bridge, Amaya already explaining: “Gideon said there was an emer-”, and they both stopped mid-track when their gazes fell onto the screen.

A familiar voice echoed through the room.

“Okay, first of all: it is not what it looks like.”

 


	16. R.I.P.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, I'm really sorry it's always taking so long! From now on, my story is gonna stray from the actual show's timeline because the whole Avalance thing, Deathwitch!Sara, Grodd, Kid Flash, Mallus and the Darhks (should be a band name) and all just don't always fit well with my storyline. I will keep it as close as I can to the characters I have already introduced, but I won't throw my plans over board because the show is progressing. I hope that's alright with you. I already have a rough outline of what I want to happen and where I'm heading but nothing is set in stone yet and there's still a lot to come. Alas, here comes the next chapter.

“Hello Legends”, Rip Hunter greeted the team.

Except for Nyssa, everyone still seemed frozen.

“Well, since you all seem incredibly glad to see me, I suggest we agree on a meeting”, Rip continued without missing a beat.

Sara opened her mouth and raised a hand, signalling him to be quiet.

“Hold up. Did you just shoot at us?”

“As I said, Miss Lance, it’s not what it looks like and I can explain.”

“Well, I sure hope so because you just almost killed my team and you better have a damn good explanation for that because otherwise you can be sure I’m gonna visit you on your ship and kick your time-travelling traitor ass.”

“Ah, still eloquent with your words, I see”, Rip quipped, but upon hearing Sara growl under her breath, he raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay, my apologies. I understand that I might have caused a little inconvenience here –“

“Inconvenience?!” Sara barked at the screen. “You almost shot us down, Rip! You almost killed us all!”

“Well, you’re still alive, though, aren’t you? Plus, I do have your full attention now.”

“You could’ve just called!!” Sara was furious.

Ray suddenly seemed very aware of Sara’s mood and tried to reason with her.

“Captain… You might wanna calm down a bit, you know… because of that little… thing..? Y’know… inside you? I mean, Rip definitely overstepped but we can figure this out…”

“Miss Lance, are you pregnant?”

“What?!” Sara snapped at Rip. “No, Rip, shut up.”

She looked at Ray and inhaled deeply. “You’re right, thanks Ray.”

He nodded with a smile. Sara turned back to the screen and, this time calmly, stated: “15 minutes. We’ll meet between our ships, in the middle. You and me, that’s it. And I swear on everything dear to me, if you pull another stunt, anything that’s endangering to my team, I’ll kill you.”

Rip nodded and promised: “I won’t. I actually come bearing gifts.”

“Not sure I want that gift”, Sara replied coolly.

“I’ll see you in 15 minutes, Miss Lance.”

The screen went blank.

For about half a second, everyone stared at the screen. Then everyone started talking at once.

“I can’t believe he almost killed us, he is our friend, isn’t he?”

“What the heck…”

“Sara, you can’t go alone, he just shot at us, he might not even be Rip.”

“Ugh, I never liked his face…”

“Is he for real? Also, I thought he was in prison…”

“Who was that?”

Sara raised her hands again.

“Okay guys, I don’t know. I don’t know what he could possibly want from us but I will find out and make sure to punch him in the face before”, she spoke over the confusion. Then, she added: “Nyssa, you just met Rip Hunter, the man who recruited us. Well, the first bunch of us. He was a time master and captain of this ship before he did a ton of screwed up things and also scattered all of us throughout time and whatnot… Long story. Anyways he got arrested by the time bureau and apparently escaped.”

“And apparently wants us dead”, Ray completed the explanation and shook his head.

Zari rolled her eyes. “Add him to the list.”

“Gift better be a gun from the future…” Mick grunted.

Nyssa slowly walked over to Sara and the rest of the team almost automatically gave them a little space to talk privately.

“So… Mr. Hunter is an enemy of yours..?” The assassin narrowed her eyes slightly. “Do you want me to take care of him?”

Sara shook her head.

“Honestly, I can’t even tell you what he is right now. He was a friend. And then I was almost killed because he sent me to medieval times and they wanted to lynch me for corrupting their women. And then I was almost killed because of him because he had some hidden agenda. And then I died because of him. Again. Or the other way around, I don’t know. And then he was working for Merlyn and Darhk and we got thrown into an alternate reality and… then he helped bring Damien Darhk back to life, knowing full well what that bastard did... Ugh.”

She groaned and rubbed her temples.

“I can’t do this anymore. Last time Rip was searching for some demon named Mallus, that demon is now sleeping somewhere inside me and is basically a ticking time bomb –“

Nyssa had listened with growing anger but at Sara mentioning the demon she interrupted her.

“Wait, Love. You have what sleeping inside you..?”

Sara sighed. “Oh yeah. That ‘thing’ inside me Ray was talking about is fortunately not a baby but a powerful demon that I might have been possessed by to get back to – doesn’t matter. I’m fine. It just might at some point take control over me and that would suck because I’m afraid even I would have to die and stay dead then…” She trailed off and Nyssa stared at her.

Sara gave her a weak laugh. “I guess ‘A lot has happened’ doesn’t really cut it, huh..?”

“Apparently not… We also might have different definitions of the word ‘fortunately’.” The brunette looked concerned. “Ms Jiwe is right… You shouldn’t go to that meeting by yourself. I don’t trust Mr. Hunter.”

Sara shook her head and sighed again. “Me neither. Just trust me then, Nys.”

She briefly let her hand touch Nyssa’s and then walked back over to the rest of her team. Everyone was still standing around on the bridge and Nyssa followed Sara back to the group.

“Okay boys and girls”, Sara spoke up. “I’m going to meet Rip. And I’m going alone. But I want everyone on high alert. One sign of bullshit and he’s done.”

“Captain, is that actually wise..?”

“Nate, it’s okay, I can handle Rip, trust me.”

“I do, you know I do, we all do. It’s just that I don’t trust him.” A couple of nodding heads supported his words and Nyssa’s expression actually showed something like appreciation for Nate upon hearing he was as concerned as her. “What if he tries something fishy and we’re not there..? Wouldn’t be the first time he works with the enemy.”

Sara thought for a second and then caved in.

“Alright. Ray will come. You’ll fit into my pocket.”

“Definitely”, he nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll get my suit!”

He ran off and Sara spoke up again.

“Okay, still: You stay alert. Whatever that present of his is… man, we all need a vacation from all the surprises lately. Or with the surprises”, she winked at Nyssa and the assassin quickly averted her gaze.

“That’s hot”, Mick commented and Sara walked past him, slapping the back of his head softly.

“Shut up, Mick. I’ll see you guys in a bit.”

 

“Ah, Sara, it’s good to see you”, Rip greeted her. He offered Sara his hand in his typical hasty manner but the blonde crossed her arms in front of her chest instead and lifted her chin while looking at him expectantly.

“Talk”, she said, “before I decide to knock your teeth out first.”

“Right…” Rip awkwardly pulled back his hand and burrowed it deep in the pocket of his old brown coat. Apparently he had not only broken out of the time bureau’s custody but somehow managed to break in and steal his stuff, too. Sara’s attention was on the pocket, half-expecting Rip to pull a weapon on her, but her gaze never left Rip’s face.

“I assumed, rightfully, if I may add, that you wouldn’t be too willing to talk to me after… what happened.”

“Are you judging my response to you shooting at us?!” Sara stared at Rip.

“Of course not. I’m actually quite relieved you haven’t killed me, yet. Your self-control has improved…” He trailed off as he saw Sara’s nostrils flaring.

“You know you make it sound like I have been going around randomly shooting at people…?” Sara pressed through her teeth.

Rip nodded and replied: “Fair point, Miss Lance. It wasn’t random, though, just for the record.”

“Oh good”, Sara snapped. “You have exactly 10 seconds to give me a good reason for you to shoot at us, or I’ll have you back in Ava’s custody in 20 seconds. Go.”

“It’s ‘Ava’ now, I see.”

“8.”

“Okay, okay!”

“6.”

“Wally West.”

“What?”

“Wally West. It appears he took my orders to run as fast as he could too serious, leading to him accidentally opening a portal.”

Sara rolled her eyes and groaned, already rubbing her forehead, because she knew exactly where he was going with his story.

“Mr. West found me three days later, panicking, saying he met someone he thought he knew but that someone wasn’t as friendly as he was on this earth.”

Rip paused, frowning at Sara’s displeased facial expression, but then decided to finish his explanations before she could decide to knock is teeth out after all. He had no doubt in mind she would stick to her threat should he fail to convince her of his good intentions.

“Earth-13 Nate Heywood, going by the name of ‘Captain Steel’, is a notorious time pirate and very much not the heroic Mr. Handsome Historian he is on this earth. Wally West managed to alienate him with his charms, causing Captain Heywood’s team – and their Waverider – to hunt him throughout time. Now, Mr. West is a speedster and he managed to outrun them at first, however, he portalled their ship and team to our earth with him when he jumped back. Long story short: I thought your Waverider was theirs. By the time I realized my mistake you had already started returning fire. It seemed a bit too late to call then.”

Sara pressed her eyes shut and inhaled deeply, slowly mentally counting to three before she exhaled and opened her eyes again.

She spoke firmly: “We can’t risk having another Waverider on this earth, especially not one with a rogue time pirate crew aboard. I assume you have no idea about their whereabouts or what they could be planning..?”

“If I had, I wouldn’t have made the mistake to shoot at you, Miss Lance”, Rip shrugged.

Sara glared at him. “Thanks Captain Obvious. I need information. My team could be in danger.”

“I don’t think Captain Steel’s crew knows about your existence. Especially not yours, personally. The two of you have never crossed paths on his earth.”

Sara internally rolled her eyes at herself as she heard herself asking: “And how is that..?”

Sure enough, when she looked at him, she could clearly see that Rip realized right away he finally had peaked Sara’s interest. Sara groaned and waved her hand dismissively.

“Okay, whatever, Rip, say whatever you wanna say”, she grumbled.

“Well, if you insist. Your Earth-13 counterpart is one of the most famous assassins known, former A.R.G.U.S. agent and a member of the Justice League. You have no business in time travel over there.”

Sara lifted her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Justice League. Nice.” Then, she cleared her throat. “Alright, I have three more questions for now. 1) How do I know you’re really you? 2) Why should I not take you back to the time bureau right now as a gift to Agent Sharpe to brighten her day..? And 3) Where on earth did you find Wally?”

Rip thought for a second.

“I’m the reason your sister’s killer is alive and you have every right to hate me for that, along with me doing a lot of things that served a bigger purpose for me but hurt or even killed you. I need your help to stop Mallus and you need my help to stop Captain Steel. China, 2018.”

Sara nodded and bit her bottom lip in thought.

“Which brings me to my gift: How do you feel about a new team member..?” Upon Sara’s incredulous expression, he hurried to add: “Not me, obviously, we’ve tried that before. This ship isn’t big enough for two Captains. Wally needs a home, I guess, and being with you guys is about as safe as he could be right now, plus, he has superhero experience…”

Sara huffed. “He might still be a kid but he’s not a stray dog you can just find a home for – and we’re sure not great at parenting on my ship. I mean, we sure can teach him valuable things like day drinking, slitting people’s throats and lighting things on fire”, she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

“You need him to fight –“

“– Captain Steel. I know. Another fight I have absolutely nothing to do with and still have to fix. Why can’t all of you people just stick to your own messes and not think I would be some sort of Swiffer sweeper here to mop away all your dirt?!”

Rip raised his hands. “For what it’s worth, Miss Lance, I am sorry. A lot of the problems you face are because of my behaviour.”

“Wow, at least we can agree on that.”

“Unfortunately, Mallus is a matter of the potential end of the world. You don’t know what he’s capable of once he’s free, once he possesses a body – I can’t even imagine what he’d do if he had –“

“Yeah, let me stop you right there, Rip. No need to search for your boy Mallus anymore, you’re looking right at him.” Rip stared at Sara with a blank face, clearly not getting the point. Sara sighed for what seemed like the 50th time that day.

“Mallus. He’s that ‘thing’ Ray was talking about, that demon is sleeping inside… me.”

Rip still stared at Sara but his expression had turned into one of terror.

“Sara…”

She lifted an eyebrow at him suddenly addressing her with her first name.

“This is nothing we should be joking about…”

Sara huffed. “Believe me, I’m not. I’ve been having the worst nightmares ever since that time I tried to save Nora Darhk from Mallus and yes, I failed. He still possesses her and now, he’s possessing me, too. Only difference is that I haven’t given in to him, yet. I hope someone finds a way to end that thing before he wakes up inside me because, frankly, I don’t fear death anymore, but it doesn’t suck less the more often you die…”

Rip looked at her dumb-struck. After a few moments, he cleared his throat.

“Well, Sara, if what you’re saying is actually true… I’m afraid I can only hope that your soul may finally rest in peace.”


	17. Captain Steel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys! I made it! I am reaaaaaaally sorry it took ages. I have been extremely busy and have troubles with my health so I didn't get to write as much as I wanted to. But since you had to wait forever, I also made this an especially long chapter, so I hope you accept my apologies... This is kind of a little one shot within the big story, we'll meet some new characters that don't play a big role in the meta story ;) I hope you enjoy it anyways :)

“So that’s pretty much the whole story”, Sara concluded. “At least I hope it is.”

The team was gathered on the bridge.

Nate pursed his lips in thought. “So what you’re saying is I have an evil time pirate doppelganger, who brought his band of merry men and his ship here to kill Kid Flash..?”

“Apparently.”

“Wow.”

There was a solid minute of silence. Then, Rip Hunter, leaning against a wall in the back, spoke up.

“How about we just ask Mr. West for his opinion on the matter? Since he is the one Captain Steel is after, and apparently the only one who knows what kind of incident actually occurred between them”, he wondered aloud and Ray nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, maybe Wally could tell us more about what happened with Steel”, he added.

“Ray, you know that I am Steel, that guy… is not me. I mean, I get the whole abbreviation thing, but still”, Nate complained about Ray’s wording.

Sighing, Sara interrupted the two of them before they could really engage in their typical friendly but annoying banter.

“Yeah, we all don’t wanna be judged by our doppelgangers and we’ve encountered enough of them throughout time to know we shouldn’t underestimate this threat. Rip, where is Wally right now?”

“Mr. West is probably running out there somewhere. He does that when he gets antsy, always buzzing with energy, that kid…” Rip shrugged but then touched the communicative device in his right ear.

“Mr. West, you’re expected on the Waverider. I’m sure Captain Lance will have Gideon open the cargo bay door for you…” he trailed off, looking at Sara.

Sara nodded and called out for Gideon. Three seconds later, Kid Flash stood in their midst, dressed in his yellow and red suit and carrying a big grin on his face.

“Hey guys! Thanks for inviting me!”

“Wow, you have really white teeth”, Zari mumbled to herself and Amaya raised an eyebrow at her in amusement.

“Wally. Good to see you again, bro”, Nate greeted him with genuine excitement in his voice, and walked over to give him a hug. After all the necessary greetings and introductions were done, Mick had given one of his usual unimpressed grunts to show his excitement, Wally looked around and his eyes fell on Nyssa, standing a little further in the back somewhat behind Sara and not showing any sign of willingness to get to know the boy.

His eyes widened for a moment.

“You”, he whispered and Sara couldn’t decide whether there was awe, fear or simple surprise in his voice.

“Mr. West. We meet again.” Nyssa’s voice was stern, not quite cold but distant and factual.

The atmosphere in the room shifted. Sara narrowed her eyes and, without even noticing it, moved more in front of the brunette as if to be able to shield her with her body in case there would be a threat.

“I didn’t know you guys knew each other”, she stated calmly, her eyes staring deep into Wally’s, who grew visibly uncomfortable.

“I… uh… we… so…” He cleared his throat and Sara saw his fingers twitching. She could tell he wanted to speed away as soon as possible.

“Yes…?” she pressed and, a half a second later, Nate pleaded: “Please tell me you didn’t, bro.”

“I didn’t”, Wally almost shouted. “Wait. What exactly didn’t I do..?” he added a little more warily.

“You two didn’t….?” Nate drew out the question, knowing everyone got what he was insinuating.

Sara pinched the bridge of her nose, drawing in a deep breath, quietly contemplating whether to punch Nate in the face and risk breaking her hand or bench him for the next mission.

“This is highly inappropriate and none of your concern, Mr. Heywood”, Nyssa spoke up, authority dripping from her tongue. She stepped in front of Sara and was the centre of attention immediately.

“Our paths crossed. We had a disagreement. He disappeared into thin air - for all I knew. Now, we meet again, but it does not seem to be the right time to discuss this matter further at the moment. Don’t you agree, Mr. West..?”

One could have heard a needle drop to the floor when she fell silent, her dark eyes staring down Wally, who swallowed hard and then just nodded vigorously, not trusting his voice.

Sara was anything but happy with the situation. What had happened? Was whatever happened going to be an issue? Was there any way to fix said issue? And had Wally hurt Nyssa? Because Sara swore to herself she would make sure he’d pay for that mistake.

A few more seconds ticked by until Amaya cleared her throat, effectively breaking the spell Nyssa had put everyone under.

“So… what happened with you and Nathaniel’s doppelganger?” she asked and the tension in everyone’s shoulders started to cease as they started to gather more information from Wally to work out a plan. Nate himself seemed really relieved that Nyssa didn’t get back to his question.

Apparently, Wally West had underestimated the attachment of a certain time pirate to his goods. When Wally had portalled himself to Earth-13 – Ray was overly excited about the fact that Wally could apparently not only run through time but also through space – he had found himself aboard a Waverider. Coming across Captain Steel, he had thought he was facing Nate, dressed up for a mission. Immediately starting to talk and rushing around on the Waverider, touching things he shouldn’t have touched, he hadn’t realized, his counterpart wasn’t actually Nate. Him holding up an extravagant weapon in the Captain’s area, had made Nate’s doppelganger snap. As Captain Steel, trying to shoot the intruder, accidentally had shot one of his own because Wally had sped out of the gun’s path, the simple misunderstanding had evolved into a feud with the time pirate Captain, who vowed to kill the kid who was responsible for the death of his second in command. A lot of running around on Earth-13 later, Wally had somehow managed to open up a portal back to his own Earth that didn’t close fast enough and let the other Waverider pass through as well.

“And here we are”, Wally closed his story.

“Can you willingly open a portal to Earth-13, Wally?” Sara asked and the young man shook his head.

“No… I don’t know how it happened, it just did. One second, I was here, the next one, I was there. But Cisco can certainly get us there. Cisco Ramon, he works with -”

“I know who Cisco is, Wally, thank you”, Sara interrupted him.

“Right, sorry”, he smiled apologetically.

Ray jumped in. He grinned: “So, we just need to get everyone to S.T.A.R. Labs and Cisco can help us send Captain Steel back, sounds easy enough! ...What?”

The majority of the people in the room had simultaneously rolled their eyes at him.

“I think it would be easier to get Cisco to wherever he needs to be than everyone to where Cisco is”, Amaya thought aloud and earned approving nods.

Now having all the important pieces of information, Team Legends and their unexpected guests started to create a mission plan.

Sara didn’t think it was a genius plan they cooked up in the end. But whatever great plans they usually had also usually went to shit so she didn’t really care. This plan was good enough for her, as Sara really just wanted this issue to be over with so that she could focus on cutting Damien Darhk’s head off.

 

Captain Steel, the time pirate, pretty much looked like one would imagine an actual pirate. A movie pirate. He apparently earned his name due to his left hand being replaced by a hook. _A hook_. Sara found herself rolling her eyes. His hair was almost shoulder-long and part of it was pulled back and up into a small bun at the back of his head. He had grown out about half an inch of a beard on his chin and a three day stubble followed the rest of his jawline, supporting his rough, dark look. His ears were pierced and he was wearing a long, black coat on top of black leather pants, a dark brown linen shirt and a dark vest, two laser guns strapped to his hips with a broad belt, both handles accessible to his right hand. The shirt’s especially low neck exposed some light chest hair and a 4 inch scar underneath his right clavicle. His exterior was rough but trim and clean and even from 30 feet away, he smelled like bourbon, tobacco and a hint of spicy, woody aftershave. Sara briefly felt that, apart from his steel hook, he actually was attractive. It was a little weird for Sara to look into Nate’s eyes and find something dark and appealingly dangerous in them - and to thereby immediately notice she wasn’t looking into Nate’s eyes at all. She quickly shook her head at her own thoughts. This wasn’t the time to be superficial.

“So what’s a pretty lady like you doing with a knife in her hand, though not standing in the kitchen..?” Captain Steel sneered, a crooked grin on his bearded face, immediately reducing Sara’s attraction to absolute zero.

“Oh, you must’ve mistaken the white suit for a kitchen staff uniform, let me clear that misunderstanding up real quick”, Sara replied with a sing sang voice and with a single swift movement sent her knife flying through the air and watched the Captain’s eyes go wide for a split second, as it hit and got stuck in the outside wall of his Waverider, just an inch next to his head.

“Are we on the same page now?”

Captain Steel bared his teeth. “You dare to threaten me, woman? You just made a big mistake…”

“Yeah? Why don’t you let me feel it, then?” Sara huffed, annoyed by his arrogance and watched Captain Steel draw one of his laser guns at her.

Before Sara could even move, she felt Ray flying past her ear and he materialized seemingly out of nowhere in front of her, catching the shot in his chest plate and immediately starting to fire back at Captain Steel. Being engaged by The Atom, the time pirate was preoccupied and it was left to his crew to fight Captain Lance and her team.

Nyssa appeared at Sara’s side and together, they ran towards the forest they had landed their Waverider by. The team had decided to choose the location to draw the fight to very carefully. Siberia seemed geographically wise, since there were very few people around, no matter the year they landed in. A forest appeared to be the logical choice, since with two assassins, a woman with the power to control air and a woman who could climb trees like a monkey, the odds were definitely in their favour. Adding the speedster factor and their own man of steel, someone who could easily burn the whole forest down if need be, as well as Rip Hunter, who was without a doubt handy with a gun, Sara was actually confident they could fix this. Knowing that Captain Steel’s team was running after them, the two women split up immediately after reaching the forest edge and nodding towards each other once, communicating non-verbally like they’d done it so many times before.

Sara ran over to Zari, who helped her up the lowest branch of a close, medium sized Siberian pine with her wind totem. She trusted that the rest of her team knew their positions and stuck with the plan. From the branch she was cowering on, she could see Amaya easily knock out her own doppelganger. The brunette tilted her head and shook it at the other her, slightly confused, before she activated her totem and the blue spirit of an ant glowed around her for a moment. Sara watched her friend pick up the other Amaya with ease and carry her through the woods towards the Waverider. Nyssa, dressed in brown and green tights and a slim fit, dark green shirt, a new bow and arrow accompanying the temporary outfit, and perfectly blending in with her surroundings, hid behind a tree nearby, waiting for just the right second to spin and send an arrow into one of Captain Steel’s people’s thigh. The man, who didn’t look the least familiar to Sara, cried out and broke down. Nyssa moved with dangerous precision and used every shadow, bush and tree to camouflage while running over to the goon. Effectively just darting past him, she hit him over the head with the end of her bow, knocking him out. A second later, she had already vanished into the forest, leaving the guy on the ground for Nate to carry to the ship. Sara felt pride filling her chest and adrenaline rushing through her veins. She definitely preferred Nyssa’s old outfit over the Robin Hood/Peter Pan/Arrow crossover, but Sara was convinced Nyssa could wear a plastic bag and make it look elegant. She missed the old days - she had missed watching Nyssa fight with grace and deadly agility. There still was an incredible beauty in her movements.

A noise almost 20 feet below her on the ground pulled her out of her thoughts. Mick, clad in a knee-long, shabby, black leather coat and all black clothes underneath, was slowly moving over the branches and leaves on the ground, trying not to make any sounds. His gun drawn, he looked out for any sign of movement, following his gaze and every slight motion of his head with the gun in his hands, checking every single tree around him with caution. This was certainly not their Mick. Sara felt a grin spreading over her face. Slowly, she reached down to her feet and grabbed the branch to let herself hang down from it with care, thereby reducing the height and waiting for the right moment to jump. She released her grip on the branch as Mick’s doppelganger was walking directly underneath her and the force of her fall had him on the ground the next second. Sara kicked the gun out of the man’s hand and drew one part of her bo staff from her belt to knock it over his head. However, the time pirate put up a fight and delivered a good punch to her knee before she could hit him, causing her to hiss and involuntarily take a knee. They exchanged a few quick punches and hits on the ground until Sara brought down the metal rod onto Mick’s doppelganger’s arm. She heard it crack under the force of her blow and her opponent screamed in pain. Sara knocked him out a second later. Shrugging to herself, she thought that she was actually doing the guy a favour for not letting him suffer through the pain of his broken ulna.

She got up slowly, dusting herself off and carefully putting weight onto her left leg. It hurt a little but, fortunately, nothing major had happened to it. Nothing some light pain meds wouldn’t be able to fix. She’d definitely still be able to run and fight. At Sara’s whistle, a red and yellow streak whooshed past her and the unconscious man was gone. The blonde assassin took off into the same direction she had watched Nyssa disappear to minutes earlier.

 

Twenty minutes later, the whole thing was over. All of Captain Steel’s crew, including himself, had been secured in the brig, observed by Mick and his heatgun. Gideon had contacted Cisco in Central City 2018. At the mention of time travel, doppelgangers, working with the Legends and fixing an anachronism, as well as meeting Wally again and getting to bring him home to Team Flash, Cisco’s eyes had almost filled with tears of excitement. Zari and Amaya had volunteered to take the jumpship to get him to 1969 and he had portalled not only Captain Steel’s crew but also their Waverider back to Earth-13. Now, Sara and her crew were gathered in the galley, saying goodbye to Cisco, Wally and Rip Hunter, who mentioned something about wanting to go to Maui for his retirement in order to avoid being put in jail by the time bureau again.

“You sure I shouldn’t call Agent Sharpe, Rip?” Sara grinned, as she shook his hand goodbye.

“Thank you, Captain Lance, but I really must decline your kind offer. I in no way want to keep you from calling her, just, don’t make this about me, will you?” He moved his mouth closer to Sara’s ear and added, so that only she could hear it: “Although I assume Ms. Raatko’s presence here will lead to less of Ms. Sharpe’s presence on this ship, am I not mistaken..?”

“Shut up, Rip”, Sara whispered back and let go of his hand, turning towards Wally.

“Goodbye, kid. Don’t open any more portals, will you?”

“Actually…” Ray interjected, as Wally was about to retort something. “I did some testing and it is quite, well, surprising you were able to open a portal by yourself.”

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

“Your superpower is extreme speed. Not inter-dimensional travel. Cisco here can open portals and basically… rip the veil in space, in a manner of speaking, so that he can jump from one location to the next and also cross over to other Earths. You shouldn’t even possess that ability, Wally. You’re fast, which is why you can rip the veil in time. This has nothing to do with space, though.”

“I don’t know how it happened, Ray, I told you. I was here one second and there the next. Sorry.”

Ray shook his head. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. You didn’t rip that veil. Someone else must’ve done it for you. You can’t do it yourself.”

“Just as it happened to me”, Nyssa’s voice was thoughtful. “One moment I was in Nanda Parbat, the next, I found myself in New York City in the future…”

Three seconds ticked by and all of the team members processed the new information when, suddenly, everything fell into place.

“Darhk” Sara growled under her breath and a collective sigh spread across the room.

“But why?” Amaya and Nate asked in unison and Sara could swear Nate blushed a little at the small smile Amaya gave him. Poor guy.

“I don’t know. Probably to throw us off our plans. To stall and prevent us from getting in his way. Either way, it explains a lot.”

She looked from Nyssa to Wally. "How long ago did you guys meet before you were plucked from our time and space?"

Wally immediately looked uncomfortable but Nyssa didn't seem hostile.

"About three months, I assume", she answered carefully and Wally swallowed his fear and added: "A little more for me, maybe 4 and a half."

"And where exactly were you, when you portalled to Earth-13?" Sara inquired, looking at Wally.

"Rip found me in China, we came back to America and I was in Chicago I think... Or Detroit? LA? I don't know, sorry..."

Sara sighed. "No worries, we'll figure this out. I just thought you might help us with some information."

Rip cleared his throat. “I am sure your team will come up with a good solution to end Mr. Darhk, Captain. I would certainly prefer to never see him again.”

“Yeah, you and me both”, Sara sighed again.

“Me, too”, Ray agreed and Nate added: “Me, three.”

Zari lifted an eyebrow at him. “You know that only works if you’re the third person, not the fourth, right..?”

Nate looked confused and Zari shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Nate.”

“If you ever need Team Flash’s help, you know where to find us”, Cisco grinned enthusiastically and Wally nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, guys, thank you so much, really, like, if there’s anything I can do to repay you, ever, just say the word!”

Mick grumbled something about being hungry.

“Okay, guys, I love this party but if we could get a ride home to 2018, that would be absolutely sweet”, Cisco laughed in response to that and Rip offered to take the jumpship back to 2018 if Gideon could just fly it back to the Waverider afterwards.

They agreed on that one way taxi tour and Rip signalled for Wally and Cisco to follow him out of the galley. On the way out, he passed Sara and hesitated for a bit. Then, he briefly rested his hand on her shoulder and said:

“If you ever need my help, Sara, I’m here for you. Despite what it looks like, I actually do care. And you don’t have to deal with all of this by yourself. Especially not with Mallus.”

“Thanks, Rip. I have a good team here. I trust every single one of them with my life. You just go and enjoy your retirement”, she smiled and he nodded and returned the smile.

The team watched the three men leave.

“Well, one threat down, only an infinite amount to go…” Sara quipped a moment later. “Good work, guys!”

“I need a beer”, said Mick and walked over to the fridge.

“Now that we’ve dealt with our evil doppelgangers, we can finally focus on Darhk and preventing him from achieving world domination”, Amaya sighed.

“Darhk can suck it”, Sara spat.

“Maybe he’s done that too much. He’s got to be the STD of villains”, Zari groaned in annoyance.

A few chuckles floated through the galley and Sara cleared her throat, a hint of a grin tucking at the corners of her lips.

“I’m just saying, let’s just enjoy dinner, please, without letting him ruin our moods. Even if he is responsible for Wally’s random travels and Nyssa’s journey to the future. This was a successful mission, we deserve some food. We can come up with a plan afterwards.”

“So, Nyssa, how did it feel to complete your first mission with us..?” Ray questioned and Nyssa gave him a little smile.

“Quite adventurous, to be honest. Definitely not as strategically executed as I was used to from the League’s missions, but there was something oddly satisfying about this fight”, she said.

Sara laughed at the comparison of theirs and the League’s missions and asked her what the satisfactory part of the mission was for the brunette.

“I guess, it is surprisingly nice to fight alongside a team for once”, Nyssa explained and the Legends nodded and smiled.

Nate shrugged. “Yup, that’s us. We’re definitely the teamiest. And your ‘for once’ will change because we still have to find a way to stop Darhk and you’re stuck with us till then.”

“So, Nys, what’s that story with you and Wally, though?” Sara wiggled her eyebrows and Nyssa laughed. Nate looked a bit insulted that him asking the same question had earned him a threat.

“That’s a story for another time, Captain”, the brunette winked and Amaya grinned at the two assassins smiling at each other.

The mood was light on the Waverider. Gideon created various bowls of food and Ray and Zari set the table. They all sat down around it  and started passing around dishes. They were safe for now and felt at peace and enjoyed the feeling of togetherness for the first time since Jax had left the Waverider.


	18. King Damien I

An hour and a lot of laughter later, the Legends finished their dinner over a story about their work with the time bureau to fix the aberrations their time break had caused. With a sheepish smile, Sara admitted that some of the uptight agents were actually quite nice people in private.

“Ha, I remember the last time you had private business with a time bureau agent. You stole that guy’s key card before you left him in the morning…” Ray quipped, finally pushing his empty plate away from him and Sara accepted his challenge by lifting an eyebrow and replying:

“Oh, and what makes you think that was the last time I had a private encounter with a time-bureau agent..?”

Zari, Amaya and Nate chuckled and Ray’s grin fell, as he realized he couldn’t possibly get out of this banter with grace, so he looked over to Nyssa for support. She leaned back against the back of her chair, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Her posture didn’t show any negative emotion or surprise about Sara’s question, though, she just shrugged with a lopsided smile. She had always admired Sara’s comebacks and there was nothing for Nyssa to judge in her suggestion. That whole Ava situation wouldn’t get in her head anymore. Ray drew in a deep breath and tried to abruptly change the subject.

“Anyways, bygones. What now?”

“More like bi-gones”, Nate wisecracked over the rim of his cup and looked around. “Bi-gones..? Get it..? ‘Cause she’s bi..?”

Since everyone just either stared at him in response or rolled their eyes or buried their face in their hands, he simply shrugged and mumbled: “It wasn’t that bad of a pun…”

“Dinner is over, guys. Now, if we could get over the fact that I’m apparently the only one here with a sex life, I’d like to get back to thinking of a plan here, people, thank you very much”, Sara shook her head and caught Nyssa’s amused gaze across the table.

Protests rose and Sara laughed: “Oh, please, Nate, I wouldn’t even have to guess, you’d shout it from the rooftops if anything excited happened to you.”

“That’s not – okay, maybe that’s a little bit true. Dammit.” He admitted and Sara smirked at him and glanced over to Amaya, who shrugged.

“Hasn’t happened for a while and definitely not on any mission again.” There was a pointed pause and then she added a bit sheepishly: “Not with Nate anyways.”

Sara’s eyes flew over to Zari fast enough to catch her shocked expression before she buried her face in her right hand, mumbling something along the lines of “By Allah…”. _Ha._ The Captain had felt the changing connection between them for a few weeks now, but they had been keeping a low profile so she hadn’t been 100% sure. It was her job to know what was going on aboard her ship and she tried to keep her eyes open for bonds that could strengthen or weaken the team work.

Nate pointed accusingly at Ray across the table. “Wow, that’s just rude, dude!”

Ray lifted his hands in a motion of innocence: “I swear I didn’t do anything”, and they both looked over to Mick, who just stared back with an unfazed expression.

Sara bit back a laugh and decided to change topics not so subtly.

“Back on track, people. I don’t care whom you’re spending your nights with as long as we don’t get a new little team member who needs their diaper changed every few hours. So: I need ideas here. How are we gonna defeat Darhk once and for all?”

She looked around and narrowed her eyes at Nate, who apparently had problems believing Ray or letting go of the topic. Sara cleared her throat and he snapped back to attention.

As everyone was trying to think of a possible plan, silence spread out among them and above the cleaned out table in the galley. They laid out strategies every now and then.

Sara laced her fingers together, hands palm-to-palm, letting the tips of her index fingers rest at her mouth in a thinking motion.

She mused: “If we actually plan on going to war with Darhk, we need to cut off his resources and hit him at a time and place where technology isn’t that advanced, meaning nowhere near the future.”

“I think we should go back to medieval times, Nate could get his fancy hat back out”, Ray laughed and Amaya and Sara grinned at the person in question, while he just shook his head in annoyance.

“For the last time, it was historically accurate clothing”, Nate mumbled.

The team fell silent for another few moments until Zari spoke up, admitting that she’d like to be a knight in shining armour for a day and Amaya blushed a little, biting her tongue not to laugh.

“I’m in if I can burn something”, Mick stated with a shrug and Sara suddenly had an idea.

“That might actually work. Gideon, can you track Darhk throughout history? Is he or where is he around 1300? I assume he’s travelled there, since going wherever and whenever he wants makes him feel powerful.”

“Mr. Darhk shows up multiple times in the timeline, Captain, and he is, in fact, present in medieval times”, Gideon answered. “If you approached the control panel on the bridge, I would be able to show you more information”, she added and the team pushed back their chairs and made their way to the bridge.

 

Gideon opened some files on the control panel. “It appears Mr. Darhk styles himself overlord of Scotland in 1291 after the Treaty of Birgham proves ineffectual because the English have reservations about Scotland’s independence.”

“Of course he becomes ‘overlord’”, Sara sighed. “As if ‘Lord’ isn’t enough.”

“Great, so that means he has a big ass army” Nate commented. “How does that help us?”

“It doesn’t. But maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.” Sara walked over to the Captain’s quarters and retrieved a big historical map while she kept on explaining her idea.

“If Darhk becomes Lord, then he’s gonna cause an anachronism we’ll have to deal with. If we get to him on his rise to power, though, we’ll prevent the aberration from happening in the first place. Weeee -” She paused to place the map on the control panel. “- will go to Scotland in 12hundredsomething to figure out how he’s going to become overlord and take him out before he can.” She tapped on the yellowish map, pointing at Scotland. Nyssa stepped closer and put her finger next to Sara’s, on a little piece of land with the scribbled word “England” on it. Sara’s stomach fluttered at the proximity.

“Edward I was king of England and became Lord Paramount of Scotland after the treaty failed”, she said thoughtfully. “Mr. Darhk becoming Scotland’s ruler in that time period means that he either kills the English king to somehow get access to the throne or that he impersonates the king, possibly also by killing him, although impersonating him would require a lot more planning. The latter would also mean we would have to stop Mr. Darhk before Edward even becomes king in 1275”, she explained and finally added: “If that happens, it is very likely to affect all of The British Isles’ history, since Edward was the one to subject Wales to English rule, created a Parliament and was in war with France as well, if I recall correctly.”

Nate stared at her. Zari and Amaya stared at her. Ray stared at her. Mick always stared at her. Sara grinned proudly.

After a few moments, Nate spoke up, genuine admiration in his voice. “Well… King Edward I was crowned in 1274 and actually already became king when his father died in 1272, while Edward was absent from England, but other than that… You’re absolutely right. Wow. Good thing I can turn into steel, otherwise I’d feel kinda useless now.”

Nyssa gave him a little smile and a nod. “Thank you for the compliment. And I assume you do know the numbers better than I do, Mr. Heywood. History is a mere interest of mine, not something I studied.”

“Well, that’s extensive knowledge for ‘mere interest’” Ray commented. “Okay, so… is there a report on King Edward’s murder, Gideon?” he then asked the AI, who immediately responded that there was no date of death at all and that King Edward I apparently just vanished at some point, later being declared dead without his body ever being found.

Sara laced her fingers together like before and tapped her lips in thought.

“Damien playing a long game like that seems kinda odd. If he actually impersonates Edward, then he’ll either have to look similar or not show himself to the people because they’d notice or he’ll have to slowly become him over time, meaning he’d have to invest years living a life that’s not his... I don’t know. He’s more of an instant gratification guy. It just doesn’t sound like him.”

“Sara’s right”, Amaya groaned. “He’s greedy and wants power. I mean sure, being king means power but waiting years and years to become one is not Darhk’s style, he’d find a shortcut.”

The team fell silent in thoughts. Gideon provided them with more specifics on Edward and they noticed a few irregularities only after 1290.

“Okay, so it seems Darhk is letting history play out as it is until the treaty fails, then he’ll be taking over Edward’s reign. But none of that is set in stone, yet, there was no time quake. And England still looks the same and Scotland does, too. We still have a bit of time. But we need to figure out a way to get to Edward and save him from Damien. Then, we’ll have to take out Darhk and let Edward do his thing, although he’ll be involved with brutal wars. But that’s just how history works”, Sara sighed.

“Okay, King Edward still has an army, though, what are we gonna do about that?” Nate asked.

“If we kidnap Edward before Darhk gets to him, that’ll ruin Darhk’s plans. He’ll not even have an army yet.” Zari thought aloud but Sara shook her head.

“He probably still would. He always has a fail-safe. If Edward disappears, then he’ll either make a new plan and we’ll start from the beginning again, or he’ll just go on because we relieved him from Edward and England needs a king.”

Nyssa looked at the map again, brows furrowed in concentration.

“What if we beat him to it? Let’s say we get to King Edward in time, talk to him about the threat and get someone inside who will be our eyes and ears, then Mr. Darhk will go through with his plan but we’ll get the information we need to plan an attack…”

Sara shook her head again, explaining: “I was already almost lynched for being a witch once, I don’t plan on doing that again. And telling a medieval king that we’re from the future will certainly end with us in chains or dead.”

“Oh?” Nyssa raised her brows in surprise but Sara decided that was a story for another day.

“However”, she cut through the amused silence in the room, “I think it’s a good idea to let Darhk think he can have it his way, that way we’ll have the element of surprise on our side. We’ll have to get to him before he _is_ Edward, though. We need to narrow down the timeline to when he takes his place. Nate, I need you and Nyssa to work together on the historical issues. Compare articles, books, scripts - anything that seems odd to you needs our attention, anything that doesn’t line up with the information you have in your brains may be a clue. Do you think you can do that?”

The two of them shared a look and nodded affirmatively.

“Of course.”

“You got it, Cap.”

Sara nodded and looked at Ray. “We know that King Edward will call the Scottish noble-men to England to proclaim himself Lord Paramount. I need to know when and where exactly and when you have that location I want you to dig up blueprints, or y’know, construction plans, maps, anything that can help us get an idea of the area we’re dealing with. Work with Z, hack into whatever bureau needs to be hacked.”

The two of them mirrored Nate and Nyssa and nodded affirmatively. Zari grinned. “I hope I’m not too much out of practise.”

“We’ll need historically accurate clothes -” Sara made a point of raising an eyebrow in Nate’s direction, “- Amaya, can you and Gideon cook something up in the fabrication chamber? We’re not in need of armour – yet – so just make it the most unsuspicious you can.”

Amaya replied: “Sure” and turned to leave, when Mick rasped: “What should I do, boss?”

Sara thought for a bit. “Mick and I’ll be in the cargo bay cleaning, loading and sharpening weapons, trying to think of a good plan, if anyone needs us”, she concluded. “Alright, let’s get to work!”

Clapping her hands once, Sara gave her final order and everyone went to do the tasks assigned to them.

 

“Alright, Mick, you said something about wanting to light things on fire earlier…” Sara pointed a dagger in his direction.

“Hm, always in for that”, he affirmed, not looking up from his heatgun.

“I might have a way for that. How good are you with horses?”

Mick looked up and stared at her. Sara bit back a laugh.

“I’ll just ask Amaya, I guess”, she grinned and returned her attention to the weapon in her hand.

Mick hummed. After a while, he rasped: “What’s the plan, boss?”

“Not sure yet”, Sara bit her bottom lip in concentration. “I just feel like, if Darhk has an army of knights, that’ll be hard enough to beat. But an army of horsemen… I don’t know, that seems out of our league and that says something. So, if we were able to, say, make sure they had no stables to tend to their horses, we’d relieve Darhk of an advantage…”

“Haircut just needs to find the plans for the stables then”, Mick thought aloud and Sara nodded.

“Exactly. And if we get to the stables and distract Darhk enough, we can minimize his horse power by burning down the stables.”

Mick lifted his eyebrows in surprise, asking: “Wanna kill all of those horses? Seems harsh.”

Sara stared at him in shock. “What?! No! Of course not! That’s why I asked how good you were with horses. Geee, Mick.”

“Ah”, he shrugged and continued reassembling his gun.

“I’ll ask Amaya to get the horses out of the boxes, since she can basically talk to them…”

“Boss”, Ray’s voice echoed around them. “Zari and I found the plans we need, do you guys want to come back to the bridge..?”

 

“There are watch towers here, here, here, here and… here.” Ray pointed at the holographic map. “According to a log Z found, patrols are done all day and night, shifts change every 5 hours. The guards on the towers are armed with bow and arrow, the foot soldiers carry swords. That old book was pretty detailed actually, it might be just the information we need.”

“We could fight our way through, given our powers, that wouldn’t be a problem, but it would certainly raise suspicion”, Zari jumped in. “As to your question about the horses: The king’s stables are heavily guarded. The knights tend to their horses over… here”, she pointed at a long building on the map, “and I think that’s our best shot if we want to go for Darhk’s resources”, she concluded.

Sara nodded slowly. “Mh, which are still King Edward’s resources, technically… Okay. That sounds kinda promising. Gideon, what do you think? Could we get to future King Damien’s horses?”

The AI was quick to respond: “Getting to the king’s stables without being seen appears to be hard. However, Ms Jiwe has come up with some excellent medieval clothing. It would surely be easier to get to the knights’ stables, though. The risk of being detected and captured there is 43.2 percent lower.”

“What if we make certain to be seen somewhere else to draw Mr. Darhk and his guards there and get to the stables then..?” Nyssa was thoughtful, her strategic mind racing, as Sara could easily read in her furrowed brows.

“I’m afraid you need to specify that in order for me to calculate definite numbers, Ms Raatko”, Gideon replied and Nyssa nodded.

“If the rest of the team were to distract the soldiers close by the market in the eastern part of the city, would Ms Jiwe and Mr. Rory make it to the king’s stables?”

“If my calculations are correct, the risk of getting caught before getting all of the horses out of the stables is still at 67.41 percent.”

“Would the percentage decrease if we landed outside the city walls and created a distraction on the big meadow south of the city?”

The team followed the exchange between the brunette assassin and the ship's AI in tense silence, everyone keen on finally going up against Damien Darhk.

“It would”, Gideon admitted, but added: “The numbers still are at more than 50 percent, though, and the probability of the rest of the team being captured rises up to 76.1 percent.”

“Gideon, is it possible to get to those damn stables?”, Sara asked impatiently.

“I can only advise caution”, Gideon replied.


	19. Rewind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm still sick so pleeeeease forgive me for not uploading regularly....... 0:)))

Gideon had been right to advise caution.

It wasn’t that they had been reckless. They just had underestimated Darhk’s predilection for the theatrical, his lack of self-control and his magical fail-safes. And how that could happen, although it was by far not their first encounter with the guy, Sara couldn’t possibly fathom. How did this happen?

Once again, things had gone terribly wrong and now, Sara stood paralyzed, staring at the scenario unfolding in front of her.

 

_On May 10, 1291, King Edward I would be recognized as authority by the Scottish nobles. The team had decided to visit Norham Castle a few weeks beforehand to avoid being seen by too many important historical figures who could put them in future history books if not dealt with carefully._

_The castle itself was well-protected by a river on the north side and ravines and slopes on the other three, and thereby relatively unreachable by someone not being able to fly in. At the gates of the castle, though, there was a town with a quite big market, taverns, a blacksmith and a baker, a butcher, a few artisan shops and huts for the middle and lower class townsfolk. Around the outskirts of the town, there was a big area of green with a couple of farms and trees randomly situated on it, always a few hundred yards apart. The distraction posse of Team Legends wouldn’t be able to get into the castle undetected and, frankly, none of them had the urge to be caged by tons of stone when they could also have a wide and easily accessible area of green to distract Darhk on. Also, they wanted to be seen, that was the point of being a distraction. They had landed the cloaked Waverider somewhat close to the city’s outskirts, far enough from the next farm to not be accidentally stumbled upon by some peasant._

_In a first information gathering mission, Ray had flown across the area and through the castle to confirm their site plan. They had made a few adjustments but the maps had been surprisingly accurate. At noon, Amaya and Mick, dressed in full disguise and definitely pulling off the medieval touch, had taken the jumpship to get the horses from the stables into the nearby woods and set the empty stables on fire._

_Ray, Nyssa and Sara suited up - in Nyssa’s case that meant putting on some comfortable clothes and grabbing as many weapons as possible - and got ready to exit the ship to cause a distraction. Zari clad herself in some of Amaya’s newly-designed clothes and left to go up to the castle and inform someone that there were strange people in town wanting to talk to someone named Damien and that they requested an audience with the king. She came back telling the rest of the team she had been laughed at but saw someone vaguely familiar hastening away so she was quite sure her message had been received. Nate stayed back at the Waverider to prevent anyone from boarding who wasn’t supposed to board the ship. Everyone remembered Sara’s dream mission to get Nyssa’s suit and they didn’t want anything like that to happen. It took about 15 more minutes until Gideon informed them of movement in town. The captain mentally prepared herself for what was coming and signalled her three teammates to follow her._

_They were standing in the middle of the big field when a dozen knights marched onto the green._

_Damien Darhk was the only one on a horse and dismounted his steed gracefully before he slowly walked towards them. He was wearing a purple gown over black linen pants and upper garments and his hair was longer than usual, although still shorter than Ray’s. Sara clenched her fist a little harder around her bo-staff. She lifted up her chin and spoke up._

_“Damien. I’d say it’s good to see you but we both know that’s a lie.”_

_“Canary, I will say it’s good to see you because I always enjoy giving you pain, so: How may I help you today?”, Darhk sneered._

_“What are you planning on doing here, Darhk?” Sara tried to stall and felt Nyssa move an inch closer, she was on high alert._

_“Oh, Captain Lance, I’m disappointed. I thought you’d have it all figured out before you came to face me.”_

_Sara gritted her teeth and decided that it was good to keep him talking because everything that turned his attention away from his castle was good at that moment._

_“Where’s Edward? We know he’s still king, but no one has seen him in days.”_

_Darhk raised his eyebrows. With sarcasm dripping from his voice, he asked: “Oohhhhh, you wanna hear my story?”_

_“Don’t pretend you don’t want to tell us all about your grand plan”, Sara huffed in annoyance._

_“Or I could just kill you”, Damien retorted drily and immediately, ten knights stepped forward, drawing their swords._

_Ray rolled his shoulders and mumbled something under his breath but Sara ordered a quiet but sharp: “nobody moves”. Then she herself stepped forward and let her gaze wander over the men flanking Darhk. Ten of them were knights but the eleventh, right next to Darhk, looked familiar. Apparently, Zari and Nyssa recognized him the same moment Sara did._

_“Lindman”, they hissed in unison._

_“Ah, I see you remember my good man Roger”, Darhk smiled, but his smile never reached his eyes. “Tell me, what should I do with the Legends, Roger?”_

_The man cleared his throat and mumbled that Nyssa had actually been a nice boss for the little time he had worked under her - but Darhk waved his hands, disappointment written all over his face._

_“No, no, nooooo, Roger, this is not how it works. This is where you say ‘Whatever you see fit, Lord’.”_

_Sara snorted and Darhk turned his head towards them._

_“I know you think you’re funny, Lance. But really, you’re just boring. I’ll have to get back to my chambers, being out here with the peasants… is just really tiring for me. I feel like you can understand that.” He turned around and grabbed Lindman by his upper arm. A few steps away, he looked over his shoulder and simply stated: “Kill them.”_

_Sara shouting “Go!” was the exact moment everything started to go sideways._

_They charged at the knights. Sara whirled her staff around and fought two guys at once, Nyssa managed to shoot two of them with her bow and arrow before they even reached her and engaged a third in hand to hand combat after relieving him of his sword. Ray threw a few good punches and shot a knight with whatever exactly his suit fired. In the middle of the confusing situation, Zari threw two knights through the air with the power of her totem. Then, she suddenly stilled._

_For a split-second, Sara made eye contact with Zari before the hacker looked down at her own chest, just in time to watch the tip of the sword, that had pierced her body, disappear again. Zari swayed and tumbled to her knees, blood beginning to stain the yellowish dress she was wearing. Sara heard herself scream “No!” and ducked away from a sword blow. Already drawing a throwing knife, she started running over to Zari, who now lay on the grass motionless. It hit the knight behind Zari right into his throat and he fell to the ground beside her. He would be dead in a few seconds. Sara dropped to her knees next to her friend and immediately pressed her hands down on the stab wound, trying to stop the bleeding._

_“No, Z, forget it! Don’t you dare die on me, do you hear me?! That’s an order!”_

_The brunette didn’t move, but Sara felt her chest heaving softly. “Stay with me, Zari, I know we had our fair share of difficulties but dying is not an option. We’re gonna get you home, okay, stay with me.” Sara was desperate, this couldn’t be happening again. Without looking up, she shouted: “Ray! Get her to Gideon, now!”_

_She kept her hands pressed onto Zari’s chest until she felt Ray’s hand on her shoulder._

_“I’ve got her, boss, go help Nyssa.” He pulled her away from the pale, bleeding woman and Sara nodded. Yes, Nyssa, right. They had a fight to win. Without looking back, she ran over to where she had dropped her bo-staff, just trusting that Ray would be able to get Zari back to the ship._

_The knights were well-trained, but their heavy armour limited them in their movements and together, Sara and Nyssa were able to defeat the remaining three knights relatively quickly._

_Breathing heavily, Sara looked at Nyssa, gave her a once over and was relieved when she perceived no obvious wounds. She was just about to ask her if she was okay, when she noticed a movement from the corner of her eye. Instinctively, she pushed Nyssa away from her, who stumbled over an unconscious knight in the grass and lost her balance, hitting her head on the ground. Sara clenched her jaw and looked up from the bolt in her closed fist._

_“I really wish you wouldn’t have done that, Lindman”, she pressed through her teeth and dropped the bolt into the grass._

_“I told you to shoot her, you baboon”, Darhk complained. Apparently, they had not walked back to the castle. Damien Darhk’s horse was standing next to a wooden cart Darhk was leaning against, watching the show they had put on._

_Roger Lindman put another bolt onto his crossbow and aimed at Sara. She caught the second one without blinking and Lindman suddenly looked very nervous._

_Nyssa picked herself up from the ground and grabbed her bow, immediately putting an arrow on its string, but Sara held up her hand._

_“No, Nyssa, he doesn’t want to shoot me.”_

_Darhk pushed himself away from the cart he had been leaning against and shook his head slowly, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed in anger._

_“Dammit, Lindman, I told you to shoot the other one, you incompetent fool.”_

_Sara still had her hand up in the air and they watched Lindman struggle to put a third bolt in place. His hands were shaking, though, and it fell into the grass._

_Sara felt like this was their chance to get out of the situation, reassess it, see what went wrong with Mick and Amaya and how Zari was doing and try again later, so she raised her voice and wished Darhk a nice day before she jerked her head towards the still cloaked Waverider, signalling Nyssa to retreat._

_When she tried to turn around and leave, though, she realized she couldn’t move a muscle. She tried to look over to Nyssa but she could only see her out of the corner of her eye, only feel her presence next to her, bow string drawn and jaw clenched. Sara could still blink and breathe, but not willingly. She had been paralyzed by magic and apparently, so had Nyssa and Roger Lindman._

_Oh no._

Damien Darhk looked almost amused as he scratched his head with his right forefinger. His left arm was stretched out in front of him, his palm showing towards the two assassins.

“Now, now, I feel like y’all don’t appreciate my hospitality enough. Roger, really, you had one job. Make the captain suffer. And what did you do? Shiver in fear. I’m very disappointed.” Darhk turned his head from the man to the two women.

“And you two… what should I do with you..?” He stepped around Lindman and into their direct line of sight. “Oh my, Canary, it’s always a pleasure. But, really, stopping your girlfriend from killing someone? Disappointing. Oh right, wait -” he disguised his voice, “- ‘she’s not my girlfriend but if you hurt her, I swear I’ll kill you.’ Uhhh, yeah, I know. Except, maybe you don’t get the chance then.”

Sara felt her heart racing. _No, no, no, no…_

Darhk came closer until he was only 4 feet from Nyssa and looked at her, his head bent over to the side as if he was thinking very hard.

Sara fought against Darhk’s power but there was no use. Out of the periphery of her vision field, she watched the magician bring his right hand up and closer to Nyssa’s face until he actually made contact with her skin. Nyssa’s body jerked slightly and Darhk looked intrigued but he stepped back and away from her.

After a few moments of more staring, he cleared his throat.

“Well, it’s interesting, impressive even. You actually feel dangerous to me, even like this. There’s fire inside you.” He huffed. “What a treat. I don’t quite remember the last time I felt intimidated by a woman. You might actually make a good wife.”

Sara felt searing-hot anger rushing through her veins, yet, she wasn’t able to do anything but stare and listen. She knew that Nyssa would have sliced Darhk’s throat already if she had had the slightest chance. The one other thing Sara knew was that as long as Darhk was not done talking, there was still a slight chance of surviving this. What was her team doing? Why was everything taking so long?

Darhk spoke again. “Well, the thing is that I would never be able to relax around you, Demon’s Head, I know you’d try to kill me at least three times a day. Nah, I think I’ll pass.”

It wasn’t a surprise to Sara that he knew the League still existed, after all, it was highly probable that Darhk was behind her finding Nyssa in New York. Still, it made her uncomfortable he waved around the information like it was a pamphlet for church on Sunday. Fortunately, there were only a few people watching what unfolded out on the green, from a safe distance inside their homes. None of them would be able to draw anything from the usage of Nyssa’s title, the things they might already have seen were probably more irritating. Darhk touching Nyssa or talking about her like that didn’t make Sara feel better in the least.

Damien Darhk turned around and walked back over to Roger Lindman whose eyes showed nothing but fear. Rightfully so, given that he was paralyzed by a resurrected, sadist, dark magician with a predilection for theatricals and anger issues.

And sure enough, Darhk turned to face them and smiled dangerously, putting out his hand again. Then, Roger Lindman was lifted up in the air, accompanied by Darhk one more time explaining his disappointment.

“Plus, Sara, really, you sparing someone’s life out of the kindness of your heart… there must be something wrong with you. I’ll have to fix this almost slip of yours for you.”


	20. Too Close

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dudes - and gals and everyone who identifies otherwise - I am incredibly sorry for this dry spell.   
> I said before I was struggling with my health. In fact, until today, I hadn't written anything since mid-June.  
> I was diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier this year, one that led to some bad symptoms and finally was taken care of three weeks ago. I'm now recovering from surgery and only now am able to stare at my screen for longer than an hour and concentrate on what I want to write. So please forgive me for my absence. I simply had to put other things first and prioritize my physical health. But now, I'm really glad that I feel it's good for my mental health to write again. So here's the next chapter.   
> And I promise to not let you wait another two months for the next :)

Just like Nyssa in Sara’s dream, a dream that she had dreamt what seemed like a lifetime ago and yet way too close, Roger Lindman, not as heavily paralyzed as the assassins, struggled against the invisible bonds holding him in the air. Damien Darhk kept watching Sara and Nyssa with an amused smile while he slowly closed his fist.   
The effect was immediate. Lindman choked and his eyes grew wider in panic, a few seconds later almost pressing out of their holes as he gasped and coughed. The bald man in his fifties groaned in pain and bent back his head, as if to open up his airway to catch his breath. His struggle for air mixed with cries of pain and when he finally was able to move his arms, as his movements became frantic and unintentional, he clutched his chest in mere survival instinct, trying to rip open his tunic as if that would help him breath. 

He wasn’t the first person Sara watched being tortured to death. On the Amazo and also later with the League, it had happened. And she’d been in a few situations of torture herself as well. Sara had learned fast that enduring pain herself was easier than watching someone else suffer. Damien Darhk making them watch this man fight against his gruesome death above the ground because he knew exactly that and also just because it gave him satisfaction - that was just sick.

Lindman coughed up blood, foam collected in the corners of his mouth. His whole body was convulsing, screaming for air, and in sheer panic, he started clawing his fingernails into his own chest, apparently trying to find another way to let air into his body. 

The two assassins were still magically paralyzed, unable to even close their eyes from the deadly spectacle occurring in front of them. The seconds ticked by and finally, the struggling body in the air went mute and limp and crashed to the ground.

Roger Lindman’s eyes were empty, his mouth half-open, teeth and chin stained in red from the blood that had bubbled up through his windpipe and finally choked him to death.

Sara felt like she was boiling inside, yet, she was still unable to move. This was sick. Unnecessary. Despicable. All she could do was watch Damien Darhk move over towards them, merely strolling as if he had all the time in the world.  _ Did he..? _

Now that they were the only two people there, incapacitated and apparently with no cavalry arriving anytime soon, all that was left to do was to hope and pray to whoever might be listening. They had gotten themselves into a life-threatening situation once again and no one should be surprised, least of all her. 

The captain felt Nyssa next to her and wondered if this was it, if this was the moment she had been trying to avoid, the situation she desperately wanted to get her away from. Why did Nyssa have to be here? Why did she propose to put herself in harm’s way as a distraction? Why did she, herself, agree and push for Nyssa’s plan to be realized? How did they screw up again? Did they even screw up? Or was the plan crap and they’d just die, paralyzed, killed by magic without any chance to defeat themselves? Were they going to face the end Sara had so desperately wanted never to become reality? Would that bastard actually make her watch Nyssa die right next to her just like she had seen it happen in her dream? Was he going to kill her afterwards, too, maybe pulling the arrow from Nyssa's bow, murder her like he murdered Laurel, just for 'poetic reasons'..? Or was he going to take Nyssa from her and let her suffer her loss, like she suffered from her sister's..? Sara’s head was spinning and she tasted acid in her mouth. This was too close. 

Suddenly, Darhk stopped dead in his tracks, his hand flying up to is face, as if something had stung him.

“Goddammit”, Sara heard Ray’s voice curse in her earpiece the same moment she suddenly was able to move again.

Darhk had lost his focus and Sara reacted immediately by drawing the remaining throwing knife from her belt and throwing it at him. He managed to avert its route at the last instant but it still hit him in the left shoulder. It stuck there, his blood slowly painting the purple sleeve darker, and he groaned in pain. Nyssa had found her balance a split-second later and sent an arrow flying towards Darhk, but with a wave of his hand both the flying arrow and the bow in Nyssa’s grip splintered into hundreds of pieces and were of no use anymore. 

In that second, Ray materialized in front of them, apparently out of thin air.

“Sorry, boss, I meant to return to my actual size while I was punching him, you know, to make it a heavy blow, but my suit malfunctioned.”

“Okay Ray, you can explain that later, thanks for saving our asses, let’s move!” Sara grabbed Nyssa, who looked like she wanted to rip Darhk’s head off, by the arm and started to hurry towards the location of their ship.

“Ah, running although you have me outnumbered? I see”, Darhk spoke behind them. Turning her head back to retort something, Sara finally noticed what she had been waiting for since she stepped foot off the Waverider. Relief flooded her systems and she drew in a deep breath stopped running and fully turned around to him.

“Hey, Damien! Do your horses smoke?” Sara shouted over to him.

For a split second, Darhk looked confused. “What are you talking about”, he huffed.

“Well, if not, then I’m pretty sure your stables are burning”, the Captain commented drily and pointed to the cloud of smoke rising from the location of his stables. Amaya and Mick ultimately had done their part. Sara smirked at Darhk’s stunned expression and felt pride for her team members.

The blonde magician seemed to need a second to catch his breath. A small part of Sara urged her to take the win and run. But the way bigger part of her wanted to savour the moment. Darhk slowly nodded, outwardly impressed.

“A distraction. I’d clap, but I can’t move my shoulder right now. You actually managed to outsmart me for once, Lance. Good job. Except there were casualties but I guess the goal justifies the means, doesn’t it…? Now what?”

Sara’s moment of joy was short-lived. She carefully watched Damien, as he reduced the distance between them, strolling closer, his left arm hanging down.

“There is something about you that intrigues me…” 

Sara instantly felt like vomiting again. 

“Join me, Captain Lance, be the queen to my king, meaning: me. Be my queen. I can give you what you desire. I can bring your sister back. I can take you wherever you want. You can share my power.” Darhk’s tone was light, as if he was having an idle chit chat with one of his friends, although his words promised things incomparable to talking about the weather.

“Gosh, you think I’d make a good wife? You seem to have a marriage issue, Darhk, first Nyssa, now me… You’re disgusting”, Sara spat with contempt.

“Captain, we have to leave, he’s probably somehow secretly called for his daughter and there will be more knights soon and this is taking too long!” Ray was nervous and adamant to get out of that sticky situation.

“Atoms are untrustworthy little critters”, Darhk commented thoughtfully while looking at Ray. “They make up everything.”

Ray stared at him in disgust and turned to leave a few seconds later. 

“Boss, Nyssa, we need to go. Zari is gonna be okay, Gideon can save her. But neither of you will stand a chance if you let him get into your heads now. I also have Nate in my ear saying the others are safe on the jumpship, too, so we need to go. Now.” Without waiting for an answer, he took off towards the ship. Nyssa followed him, slowly walking backwards, her eyes never leaving her beloved, a dagger in her right, ready to throw it at Darhk’s chest.

“Sara, we need to go…”

“My offer stands. Join me, Sara, have your sister back, and together, we could rule the world. I mean, I’ll rule it anyways, but you could be alive and so could your sister and we would be unstoppable.”

Sara saw red. His arrogance was infuriating. “Shut up about my sister, Damien, or I swear I’ll find a way to detach your head from the rest of your body.”

“Sara, please, this is not the time. We will stop him, I promise, but we cannot win this fight now. He is a wounded animal, ready to lash out. And there will be reinforcements soon.” Nyssa stopped walking, worry filling her gaze.

Sara stared at the man in front of her, her nostrils flaring, half of her brain screaming to run to Nyssa and the other half prompting her to lunge at Darhk and kill him. Instead of doing either of the two, she moved no muscle.

Darhk smiled slyly and lifted his hand, almost as if he was offering it to her. “You could be almost as powerful as me, be with your sister, Canary…”

Him using her name like that snapped her back into reality. Laurel wouldn’t want her to die because she was being stupidly impulsive, and certainly not while trying to avenge her.

“This power you’re promising me doesn’t change what you did or who you are, so I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’m done playing your games. I’ll come for you, Darhk, we’ll come for you. And we will end you, for good”, Sara snarled and finally turned around to jog after Nyssa, who was waiting for her a good 10 yards closer to the Waverider. 

Even with the growing distance between them, she could hear him state: “You know I’m going to kill your Beloved eventually.”

Gideon had just started the engines. Closing up to Nyssa, the two assassins made their way back to the ship without any more disturbance and Sara sighed when Gideon closed the cargo bay door behind them. Only then, Sara allowed herself to let reality sink in. That had been way too close. Again. It had almost cost her a team member, someone she cared for, again. Plus, it had almost cost her Nyssa's and maybe her own life as well. People had died, again. Also, she had just officially declared war to the most screwed up resurrected dark magician on planet Earth (and maybe other earths, too).

When she turned to face Nyssa, her pulse still hammering in her ears, she felt a familiar tug in her heart, a pull towards the brunette glowing in her stomach, a longing for safety and warmth and familiarity, something to scare away the cold that had gripped her heart dealing with Damien Darhk. The feeling was one of deep affection, yet without the slightest inkling of sexual tension. Beloved. She locked gazes with the woman in front of her and immediately was able to breathe more freely. It felt to Sara as if she could suddenly grasp the strings of the universe, the ties that bound her to everything she had ever experienced, every memory she had made, every person she had loved, romantically or not, the threads that held her in time and space, even though both concepts had become fleeting over the past few years. Sara suddenly saw clearly that all those strings were thin, unimportant compared to the thick, pulsing thread binding her to the woman looking at her with love and respect no matter what Sara had done in the past or still did in the present. She realized that if every other string was cut, she would still be able to live and breathe as long as Nyssa’s heart was bound to hers as an anchor to reality.

“I’m so glad you’re okay”, she whispered, her voice cracking.

Nyssa’s gaze was open, intense and as deep as the oceans Sara had almost drowned in before Nyssa had found her. Sara knew she could feel it, too, the weight of this moment. The brunette opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again as if she did not know exactly what to put out there. She had always been a person to rather not say anything than say something not completely thought-through. Nyssa briefly wetted her lips with the tip of her tongue and finally stated: 

“Sara… I think it is time to talk about this… us.”

The blonde nodded silently and motioned for Nyssa to follow her. “We can go to my quarters. But I’ll check in on Zari and the rest of the team before, if that’s okay. And I need to get out of my suit, I don’t like these blood stains on the white at all.”

“Of course.”


	21. A Heart-to-Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know one or two of you have been waiting for this. There's some angst but there's other things too, so get out the tissues or chocolate or pillow or whatever you may need - I got pretty emotional writing this chapter.  
> As always, enjoy the ride and please, take the time to leave a little comment :)

“Are you sure that starting an actual war against Damien Darhk’s people is a wise idea, my love?”, Nyssa asked when they were back at Sara’s quarters. “I would prefer not to have you die on the battlefield. However, that seems quite likely, given how the events today turned out and Ms. Tomaz almost died in battle”, she admitted with a worried expression on her face, obviously deliberately not diving into how close the two of them had come to death. 

The sun was still visible above the mountains on Sara’s screen, although the sky was turning into fire already, promising a beautiful sunset in the Himalayas. 

“I’ll do everything I can so you won’t lose me like that”, Sara promised and gently touched the wrinkles on Nyssa’s forehead to smooth them out, before pulling Nyssa in for a soft kiss. When she took a step back, a warm blush had spread over her features. 

“It’s sweet you say that, though”, she smiled sheepishly, her fingers nestling with the hem of the soft, olive-green shirt she had changed into.

Nyssa looked at her with thoughtful eyes. Then, she stated, matter-of-factly: “I have always loved you, Sara, from the moment I first heard you laugh into my father’s face.” 

Sara felt her heart drop to her stomach - not because of fear but because of the intensity of Nyssa’s words. It wasn’t surprising to Sara that Nyssa was so open about her feelings towards her. But actually hearing her say that, especially after what they had just barely avoided, meant more to the Captain than she could possibly put in words – so she swallowed hard and stayed silent.

“After you came to free me in the dungeons… I thought I would never see you again and I was fine with that fact. I was convinced you were better off without me”, Nyssa continued quietly, her voice cracking only the slightest bit at her last words. Sara heard it and felt the cracking in her heart. 

“Nyssa…” Sara whispered but Nyssa shook her head.

“That’s the part you have known already… But, Sara... things have changed for me.”

Sara’s heart dropped again, this time, fear definitely was the reason. Where was this going? She had thought they were fine - kind of at least…

“O-okay..?”

“My feelings about all of this, my stance on you and me, here… You heard Mr. Darhk’s comment on our relationship… I cannot continue to do this anymore.”

The blonde felt her windpipe narrow and there was an odd, piercing feeling in her chest. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “Nyssa, please, I – Remember how you said you knew I loved you when I left you in Nanda Parbat…?”

“You know I do. You don’t have to say it.”

“No, Nys, please, I’m incredibly happy you’re here. I haven’t been this happy in… I don’t know. Ever. I mean, I’ve been happy with you before, don’t get me wrong, but everything else felt so dark and now, I’m just… I know I am different from when I was with you and the League and maybe you don’t like the resurrected version of me as much but I swear I’ve also never stopped loving you, not for a second. I’ve - I’ve met other women over the years but no one could compete with you, not in the least. I thought about going back to you all the time, I just - I didn’t know how because I have a family here and also you said I should leave you and I didn’t know if you’d ever want to see me again, because you sent me away from you, so I stayed here instead and - if there’s the slightest chance you still have some love left for me, please, don’t leave.” Sara felt desperate, so she rambled on.

“Sara…” Nyssa tried to stop her from going on.

“Please, let me try, let me make this right - I promise, I -”

“There is nothing to make right, Ta-Er al-Safer.” Finally, the Demon’s Head got through to the younger assassin. 

“There is  _ nothing _ to make right”, she repeated. “I love how comfortable you are here, I love how happy you seem around your team, how you’ve kept that light I’ve always admired in your heart and preserved it - through everything that has happened since we last saw each other. I love you, Sara. And I know you belong here.”

Nyssa paused and looked at the blonde intently, before she continued: “But I also know now that I need you. I think I might always have known, but now I am finally able to admit it to both myself and you. I do not want to keep myself away from you anymore. I do not want to pretend I am fine with you being somewhere and sometime completely different from me because I’m not good enough for you. I wish to be with you, Sara. I’ve always wished to be by your side. That hasn’t changed and that will never change. What has changed is that I do not feel like either of us is better off without the other.” 

Sara Lance blinked at the brunette woman in front of her, trying to grasp what she was saying.

“You…”

“I will always love you. And as my Beloved, you have my heart, Ta-Er al-Safer.” Nyssa swore solemnly. “Now I’m asking you if you will have the rest of me as well.”

“Wait... You’re not leaving..?”

Nyssa smiled softly, her gaze warm and honest. “I wish to stay with you for as long as I can. I wish to be with you, completely. I would be fortunate to be part of your family. If you will have me.”

Sara couldn’t stop the little noise of relief that left her throat - she suddenly felt like she could fly with how many butterflies were fluttering in her stomach. Warmth spread through her body and she nodded with happiness filling her gaze.

“You really could have started that conversation less dramatic, y’know..?” Sara laughed nervously, tension draining from her body. She thought for a second while calming down her heartbeat.

“Two time travelling assassins saving the world until they retire together and then go back to their cosy little hut in Nanda Parbat to live happily ever after..? That sounds too good to be true”, Sara smiled with a wink and stepped closer to Nyssa, pulling her in for a deep kiss.

“Mhh… we might have to go back in time and deal with the League, though… But your plan sounds nice. In fact, I do not think I could imagine anything better than that”, Nyssa smiled against Sara’s lips before Sara softly broke their kiss and stepped back a bit, looking up at the other assassin.

“You’re such a sap, woman…” Sara grinned and felt warmth spreading through her body.

Nyssa pursed her lips to mask a smile. “And yet, it seems you are the one blushing, Love, again…”

Sara huffed. “Never.”

“It certainly looks like a blush…” Nyssa trailed her fingertips over Sara’s cheekbones, making the blonde shiver ever so slightly.

Sara bit her lip and cleared her throat. “Shush now, or I'll have to make you shut up”, she threatened, well-aware that her threat was, in fact, nothing the like, but rather a challenge some part of her, a big part, hoped for Nyssa to pick up on. 

“Maybe war is not the answer to your problems after all, Beloved”, the Demon’s Head suggested. Nyssa’s voice was slightly lower than usual and Sara swallowed, trying to compose herself and act cool.

“They say ‘make love, not war’ – but honestly, why choose..?” She casually smirked at Nyssa, cocking an eyebrow, and the brunette chuckled and took the hint. Stepping even closer, she let her fingertips wander down Sara’s bare arm, marvelling at the goosebumps erupting on her skin underneath her soft touch.

“I confess my undying love for you and you immediately attempt to seduce me. It seems like some things really do not change...”

“Hey, don’t pretend you didn’t like it back then”, Sara breathed, her mind too preoccupied with Nyssa's touch to actually feel offended.

“I do not, I’m just sensing a pattern here…” Nyssa smirked flirtishly. Then, she leaned in, her lips barely grazing Sara's earlobe, and her tone changed ever so slightly. “But… I certainly will not complain." 

Sara shivered and did her best to control her breathing. _Who was seducing whom again..?_  


After moving back a little to look into the blonde's eyes, Nyssa suggestively asked: "Now, what exactly is your plan for tonight... Captain?” 

Accompanying the last word, she raised an eyebrow herself, accepting the challenge, and Sara’s gaze darkened. Now, that was a new dynamic she could get used to. 

After a few seconds of locking gazes, contemplating on how long they would be able to keep their hands off of each other, Nyssa crossed the last inches between them and placed her lips on Sara’s once more. They had kissed a few times after Nyssa had come aboard the Waverider, usually when emotions were running high, but this was different. There was another spark in their connection, probably heightened from their conversation - the sudden absence of fear of the other one leaving - and the desire to forget the things they had witnessed before. It was warmth that shot from their lips through their bodies and settled in their lower abdomens. When Nyssa sighed against Sara’s parted lips, the blonde’s breath hitched as she felt a sudden pull in her core, a distinct tugging below her belly button, and she gripped the brunette’s hip to draw her closer against her body, feeling every layer of clothes between them like a mile. Nyssa’s left hand wandered down to the small of Sara’s back while her right was placed gently on the back of her head, entangled in soft blonde hair. An approving gasp fell from her lips when Sara’s fingers snuck under the hem of her black tank top and made contact with her heated skin, pressing down into the little dent just above her hip bone.

Without breaking their kiss, Sara led Nyssa over to her bed. Their movements had started out as impetuous but soon were slow, attentive, longing, as not an inch of skin that was revealed was left untouched. One piece after the other, their clothes were discarded to the floor. They fuelled their desire by following the curves and edges of their bodies with tender touches and open-mouthed kisses. The sounds of uneven breathing and soft moans of pleasure filled the air around them like music. They mapped out each other’s skin, fingertips caressing the scars they had not seen before, lips trailing over bones and muscles, bodies arching into one another with slow-burning but fiery heat. It felt to Sara like nothing had changed, no time had passed, and yet, only as she moved her naked body in unison with Nyssa’s, fingers digging into the soft skin of her strong shoulders, she realized how much she had missed all of her.

 

Tracing light patterns over Nyssa’s scarred back, the moon and stars shining bright above the Himalayan mountain peaks on Sara’s screen and illuminating their soft outlines, Sara finally felt utterly at peace. 

 


	22. Change of Clothes

“Good morning, fam!” Sara greeted as she walked onto the bridge, just this once the last person to arrive. Without missing a beat, she continued: “However hairsbreadth, we had a win yesterday. Zari, I’m glad you’re okay”, she addressed the woman who was sitting cross-legged on one of the chairs on the bridge and in response tipped an imaginary hat.

A tired-looking Amaya leaned against the chair, sipping some steaming herbal tea after a night of presumably very little sleep due to waking over the injured woman. Zari now was feeling great and obviously had zero interest in missing the fun, even though Gideon had suggested a few days of deep sleep. During many hours of the AI working her magic, the hacker had, among others, gotten a blood transfusion and several painkillers, which caused her to lose her inhibitions and got her passionately interested in a variety of things.

“Since we’re all alive, and we robbed most of Darhk’s knights of their horses, we need to figure out how to finally end this back and forth with the evil bastard asap. But, to keep up the good mood, the first order of the day is-” Sara turned towards Nyssa, who was quietly standing in the back of the bridge, a relaxed expression on her face. “- You’re getting a new suit.”

Excitement rose among her team and Sara lifted up her hands to calm them down. A new suit was always something exciting, something that usually ended in a good night with lots of alcohol and snacks. It had been a while, though, as Zari’s ‘suit’-reveal had kind of gone unnoticed and the last time they had an actual suit party was when Sara had changed hers.

“Okay, okay, guys.” She called for order with a grin on her face. “This is Nyssa’s suit. You get no say whatsoever in the design.”

Nate looked disappointed. “I have so many cool ideas, though, like… she’s a ninja”, he complained. Sara blinked at him in disbelief.

Ray, already in inventor-mode, chimed in: “I could add some cool tech features! I mean, not as cool as my suit, obviously, but almost. I’m thinking a basic, two-layered material, maybe a para-aramid outer layer - depending on the mixture with other polyamides it could be both waterproof and elastic, as well as heat- and flame-resistant, and provide stabbing or even ballistic protection - and then maybe lyocell on the inside, soft but strong and absorbent. Obviously, most of the tech stuff would go into the weapons, I can build a smart bow with target lock so that your arrows never miss their -”

Most of his teammates were staring at him and not following a word he said and Sara was just about to interject that Nyssa’s bow certainly did not need that feature, when Zari cut off Ray with no regards whatsoever for the direction of their conversation.

“Wait, important question: what did her old outfit look like, though? Is there a way to look at it, compare both versions? Is there a picture?” Her eyes widened with a mixture of excitement and wonder. “Are there pictures of assassins at work? I mean, I guess if you were caught on camera that would defeat the purpose of an assassination… But. Are there pictures? Ooh, are there any baby pictures of you guys? You must’ve been adorable!” Sara looked over to Nyssa, who was carrying a casual but amused smile on her face, as Zari continued talking. “Sorry, got sidetracked. The outfit. Was it dark and dangerous? Was it hot? I bet it was hot. We should make the new one hot, too.”

Biting back a grin herself, Sara tried to calm down the hacker.

“Z, I appreciate the excitement - and yes, it was, in fact, nice to look at - but, technically, she could want the same design, then there would be nothing to compare…”

Protests rose and Ray suggested they could simply all design a suit for Nyssa and she would pick the best one. Mick stared at him with disgust.

“No, thank you”, he grumbled.

Amaya beamed at Zari, who openly grinned back, definitely high on pain meds.

“Guys, we’re not a team of designers, I’m pretty sure there’s no need for a fashion show here”, Sara dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand but her eyes widened with shock when Nyssa retorted: “So, what if I liked to model for you?”

The Captain turned her head to face the dark-haired woman, so fast she could swear she almost broke her own neck, and stared at her with her mouth slightly agape, her mind racing through various different outcomes of said show.

Nyssa just looked back at her and let a solid five seconds pass before she let out a laugh.

“‘Gotcha’, as I assume you would say”, she said with an entertained and self-confident spark in her eyes.

Sara opened her mouth even wider in consternation and then closed it, shaking her head.

“Wow, really, that’s how far we’ve come”, she mumbled with mock hurt and shook her head again, this time mostly to get a particular set of images out of her head she did not want to picture in public. A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth and she bit her tongue to keep herself from commenting anything else.

“You two seem oddly chipper this morning”, Zari noted with a smirk and, wiggling her eyebrows, added: “Something nice happen last night…? Rhetorical question. Gideon suggested not disturbing you.”

Both assassins’ faces immediately turned a warm shade of pink. It wasn’t because they regretted anything or because they generally had issues with intimacy between the two of them, far from that. Still, they looked like they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Sara usually had no problem whatsoever with her team commenting on her sleeping with anyone. God knows, she had gotten enough comments and looks for a lifetime after her encounter with the Queen of France. Those kind of remarks didn’t bother her at all - Sara liked her body, she liked that she appeared confident, she liked the effect she had on other people, she cherished how both men and women turned their heads when she walked by. Sex was something that had made her feel human when she had been convinced she was not. She felt no shame for that. Yet somehow… this was different. Her relationship with Nyssa was different. It wasn’t about the sex itself, although it had been an amazing, more than satisfying night. It was about the connection between them, about truly knowing one another. It was about the fact that their passion didn’t derive from a place of lust and need for physical satisfaction, but a place of… _love_ , Sara thought. A warm feeling spread through her body immediately as the word formed in her mind. It felt real and right and it made her incredibly happy and… She looked at Nyssa and couldn’t help but smile widely. The blush on the assassin’s cheeks was adorable.

Nyssa surprisingly cleared her throat. “Your Captain is equipped with many talents”, she stated and Amaya almost spit out her tea while the rest of the team erupted in cheers.

Laughter filled the bridge and Sara, now turning a darker shade of pink herself, felt flustered but not embarrassed at all. She smiled warmly at the assassin, appreciating that she felt this comfortable around Sara’s team. Her own team. Sara remembered how much it had taken her to make Nyssa laugh with others around - back when they had both still been part of the League of Assassins. A joking comment like this was something new. It seemed that the Demon’s Head had learned to break down some of the walls around her over the past years. Sara was sure it would take even less time to build them back up, but for all of their sakes, she hoped it would never come to that. She enjoyed how Nyssa was a little softer and lighter and she certainly enjoyed her smugness a lot.

“I had a few years to pick up stuff”, she retorted with a shrug and she knew just looking at Nyssa biting her lip to keep in a follow-up comment that this was exactly where and how they were supposed to be. Surrounded by family, relaxed, yet adventurous, together, in love.

Zari decided to comment on Nyssa’s expression and just blurted out: “Looks like you’ve always been talented, Captain.”

Amaya gently put a hand on the hacker’s arm, nostrils flaring in a desperate attempt to keep her posture and not laugh out loud, and urged: “Zari, I think you need to get some more sleep or you’ll say something we might all regret.”

The rest of the team nodded and made muffled sounds of approval, all trying not to burst into laughter - except Mick, who looked like he was busy picturing what had happened between the two women, until Nate hit the back of his head and pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Okay, enough of this. Come on”, Sara laughed and took Nyssa’s hand in hers, excitement over the new task buzzing through her. “We’ll get you something badass, then we’ll show the team _afterwards_ ” – she made a pointed pause – “And, since I need to run some errands later, we’ll celebrate together tonight, sound good?”

Nyssa smiled at the blonde and her joy and agreed with a nod, letting Sara pull her away from the bridge.

 

An hour later, Sara let her eyes trail over Nyssa’s body with her mouth instantly going dry.

The Demon’s Head was now wearing a black long-sleeved shirt that was _very_ (Sara tried her best not to stare) tight-fitted, but flexible and strong and made from some heat- and cold-resistant material Gideon had cooked up - with a sound logic behind the choice.

“According to my data, the nights are oftentimes cold in the Himalayan regions around where Nanda Parbat is supposedly located. Additionally, I could not help but overhear Ms. Raatko’s request to stay aboard the Waverider more permanently and this ship has been to many different climates. Forgive me for intruding an apparently private conversation, Captain. I’m afraid that is what I was programmed to do. I am, however, confident that a simple command from you could fix that issue. Welcome again, Ms. Raatko.”

“Thank you, Gideon”, the two women had answered in unison and then shared an amused look.

Over the shirt, Nyssa wore a fairly elastic black leather corset that protected her abdomen and connected to a delicately patterned chest-, upper back-, and shoulder-piece of soft but resilient leather armour. It reached up to her neck and the dark red leather straps on her back and between the shoulder and middle parts secured it in place, thereby keeping her mobility high.

Tight, deep red leather pants in the same colour as the straps, comparable to the old ones but with two thin black belts and small buckles on each thigh to fasten daggers or throwing knives to the legs, were complimenting the black top part of the outfit. Her black boots and gloves, as well as the bracers were very similar to her old ones, black and red with cords to adjust to the most comfortable fit.

When Nyssa stood there, her long, dark hair framing her delicate face, suited up, yet without weapons, the new outfit following and complimenting her toned body, revealing strong arms and legs under the tight-fitted garments, dark and dangerous, Sara felt the urge to relieve her of her clothes right there and then. To say she liked the new look would have been the understatement of the year and clearly, Nyssa noticed Sara's burning gaze.

"Good thing this is heat-resistant, I assume", she joked and Sara wetted her lips and nodded.

"You’re breathtakingly beautiful - and also really hot", she admitted, biting her bottom lip.

“I especially like that you’re gonna have it much easier to breathe in this than I used to in my Canary suit, ‘cause that part was the worst. I mean, it looked hot but I’m glad I don’t wear corsets anymore.”

Nyssa gave her an understanding smile. “You wore them with pride, though.”

“Yeah but also with chest pain”, Sara quipped. “You shouldn’t have that problem. It looks snug but not restricting.”

The assassin drew in some deep breaths and exhaled with a smirk. “Snug, but not too restricting”, she repeated and experimentally started bending, stretching and moving around in her new suit.

Sara watched with a mixture of pride and excitement. Tilting her head, she figured that something was missing in the new outfit, though.

She typed a few numbers and patterns into the clothing chamber’s control panel and after about ten seconds handed Nyssa a loose coat with thin, dark red threads like blood vessels woven into the light but resistant, pitch-black fabric. It was a little shorter than long-sleeved and long enough to cover her legs down to her knees, coming with a black hood and veil to add to the typical assassin look.

"Here, let me help you with that", she spoke softly and stepped closer in order to strap the outer garment to the shoulder armour and corset. It was still functional, as Nyssa would be able to lose the coat with a single pull at the metal buckle holding it in place.

Sara tugged at the seam of the coat and pulled Nyssa in.

Leaning close to her ear, she whispered: "There, this is better. Almost like your old outfit, just with a touch of mediaeval efficiency and futuristic appeal. And I'd still prefer it on the floor".

She heard Nyssa's breath hitch in her throat and stepped away with a low chuckle.

Giving her another once over, Sara nodded with satisfaction.

She pointed over to a corner. “There’s a mirror, if you want to take a look…”

Nyssa smiled at her and walked over to said mirror. After taking a long look at herself, she turned around and stated: “I have to admit, it seems to be efficient and easy on the eye. You prove good taste, Love.”

Sara laughed: “Didn’t think you’d need prove after last night”, and Nyssa gave her a light shrug.

“The only thing that would compliment this outfit more than the floor would be weapons”, she picked up Sara’s comment and the Captain hurried to type in what Nyssa needed.

She was right. It looked even better with daggers, sword and bow and arrow in place.

 

“Woah”, Ray uttered with wide eyes.

Mick stared at Nyssa very openly.

Nate and Zari gave Nyssa a once over and looked equally impressed.

“That… is a really neat suit, Nyssa”, Zari complimented her and did her best not to stare at the assassin for too long. Sara, coming to a stop next to Amaya, lifted an eyebrow in amusement.

“You would definitely look great in it”, Amaya whispered to Zari and the hacker blushed. Sara bit her lip to suppress a grin.

“Tatatataaaaa”, she sounded instead and gestured over to Nyssa in her new outfit. “Judging from your initial reactions, I’d say we made some good fashion choices”, she laughed.

“Yeah… It’s hot…” Mick was still staring, his eyes glued to Nyssa’s chest.

Nyssa crossed the distance between them so fast that not even Sara was able to move a muscle before the Demon’s Head was behind the man, holding a brand-new and razor-sharp dagger to Mick’s throat. Time suddenly seemed to be standing still. Everyone held their breaths and stared. One could have heard a needle drop to the floor.

“It’s all very practical…”, Nyssa whispered at Mick’s ear, still loud enough for everyone to hear, her voice all too familiar to Sara, the dangerous, dark tone in it sent shivers down her spine and made her stomach drop. It was the tone Nyssa had used numerous times right before eliminating a mark, the one that caused fear to drip from her target, as they realized: hers was the last voice they would ever hear. Sara felt like her blood was frozen, her extremities so cold that even if she had wanted to fight to save her teammate, she would not have been able to.

Mick stared straight ahead at Sara with something in his eyes that could best be described as arousal. He swallowed hard and with the movement of his Adam’s apple, the blade at his throat drew a thin line of blood.

“Still very hot…” he rasped. Sara stared back at him, paralyzed. _Did he not realize the danger he was in_?

Three seconds ticked by, complete silence filling the bridge apart from Mick’s raspy breathing.

Then, Nyssa released him from her grip, casually stepped around him and offered him a hand.

Tilting her head and giving him a small smile, she said: “Thank you for the constant appreciation, Mr. Rory”.

A collective sigh of relief spread across the bridge and Sara noticed how fast her heart suddenly pumped her blood through her arteries. She numbly watched Mick grab Nyssa’s hand and _kiss_ it.

“What the…”

At least everyone else on the team looked just as stunned as she was.

“I need a drink”, Zari took it upon herself to state Mick’s usual line and everyone unfroze.

Ray uneasily remarked that she was still on painkillers and a drink would not be a great idea and Amaya leaned back against the central console to catch her breath.

“Remind me to never get on your bad side, will you?” she asked and Nate agreed and added: “You know that was dangerous right? Not everyone’s made of steel like me; he could have been actually hurt.”

“Ooookay”, Ray stepped in front of Nate and put a hand on his chest. “No need to lecture an assassin on how dangerous she is; let’s just… pretend this never happened.” He sounded nervous.

Mick, _smiling to himself??,_ wordlessly handed Nyssa an old handkerchief he had pulled out of one of his cargo pants’ pockets and she nodded appreciatively before using it to wipe his blood from her dagger. She looked up and winked at Sara when she sheathed the weapon again.

The Captain stared at her for a second longer, pure bewilderment in her look. “You guys are gonna give mamma a heart attack someday, for Christ’s sake.” Sara shook her head in confusion, collecting herself. She drew in a deep breath, straightened her back and decided it was no use to question the situation further so she might just as well move on.

“I don’t know what the hells just happened but since, yet again, we’re miraculously all still alive and now are able to suit up, too, I think it’s time to get out the big guns. We’ve done what we can by ourselves, now we need help to figure out how to get rid of Darhk’s magical powers because we won’t have a fighting chance to win otherwise.”


	23. Field Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters are somewhat of filler chapters. I was asked to write about other pairings and I don't really feel comfortable with other dynamics as much as I am with Nyssara, so I'm not gonna write an entire new fanfic about someone else. BUT I want you to know that I appreciate every comment and suggestion and in order to get some more people into the mix, I'm sending Sara out on a field trip. I hope you'll enjoy it, although it's a new terrain for me. Please let me know what you think - especially if you don't like it - because I want this fic to be the best entertainment for you guys :)

The Captain clapped her hands and announced that, since they had neither enough mechanics nor brains to figure out something that would certainly work to erase Damien Darhk’s magical abilities, she had decided to talk to an acquaintance off board. Needless to say, Ray was a little hurt about her assessment of the team’s brain situation.

After they had dealt with Captain Steel, S.T.A.R. Labs’ Cisco Ramon had made more permanent repairs on the Waverider’s still battered systems and helped fix remaining mechanical issues. Additionally, before taking Wally and Rip back with him, he had left them a little gadget that opened portals to other places, even if on different earths. Right now, Sara was grateful for that because it was definitely more practical than getting Cisco aboard the Waverider again to open a portal for her. 

She had decided to go to Earth-38 and pay Alex Danvers a visit. 

After taking the Waverider back to 2018 to be in the appropriate time period, her team was granted a day off, for as long as Sara was going to be on her field trip. Amaya was pronounced temporary Captain of the ship and Mick, carrying the thin cut on his throat with pride, was already halfway through the door to find the closest bar to watch a football game. 

Sara waved goodbye at her crew and pulled Nyssa with her into the hallway.

“Look, I’m glad you didn’t kill Mick earlier, but maybe you should wear something more comfortable while I’m not around”, she suggested, her tone light but the order in her words clear, before she pulled the brunette in for a kiss. She felt Nyssa grin against her lips.

“No need to be jealous, Love”, Nyssa smirked and kissed her again.

“Mhhh, I’m really not, I’m just looking out for my team”, Sara retorted with a wink and added: “Seriously, though, no more stunts like that, please? I know you had it under control but even I was scared for his life…”

Nyssa looked apologetic. “I did not mean to scare you. Would it be of use if I argued that Mr. Rory liked my… stunt?”

The blonde chuckled and pursed her lips. “Not really, no.”

The Demon’s Head sighed softly but accepted her defeat with a smile.

Sara returned it and pulled her in for a hug. For a few moments, they stood in silence, wrapped in their embrace. Then, Sara stepped back to look at the brunette. 

“I’ll be back soon, hopefully with a good plan. Don’t get lost in the Bermuda Triangle or something while I’m gone.”

Nyssa looked confused and tugged a strand of Sara’s golden-blonde hair behind her left ear. “Why would I do that…?”

“Oh, our team manages to pull dangerous stunts  _ you  _ wouldn’t even be able to think of”, Sara promised and turned to leave.

“Be safe, Sara”, Nyssa spoke gently and Sara, already walking away, looked over her shoulder saying: 

“I will. Alex is… a friend.”

 

Sara wasn’t sure where to go exactly when she arrived in National City. She had heard of the D.E.O. but she had no idea where their headquarters were located and she doubted that asking for directions would get her any further. Since her phone now connected to the same cell towers as Alex’, she decided to just call her to avoid wasting time by searching for an agency that wasn’t meant to be recognized as such.

A few seconds later, someone picked up. 

“Danvers. Who are you and where did you get this number”, an authoritarian voice demanded to know. Sara’s eyebrows shot up with pleasant surprise and a grin tucked at the corners of her mouth.

“Well, if you must know: you gave it to me when we were both drunk and in between round two and three of sex. I thanked you - by giving it to you. Again”, Sara replied dryly and heard the agent’s breath hitch.

“Uh, Sara. It’s… surprising to hear from you”, Alex stammered and quietly excused herself to someone. Sara heard someone giggling in the background and Alex mumbling: “Shut up, Kara”.

“Sorry, hey, I’m at work…” Alex voice still sounded a little stressed out and Sara bit back a grin and sat down on the lowest step of the set of stone stairs next to which she was standing.

For a moment, Sara watched the people hurrying past her. There were men and women in suits, phones glued to their ears, a laptop case or folder in the other hand. There were people with strollers, kids clutching their parent’s hand. A homeless man shuffled along the sidewalk, a sleeping bag under his right arm and a crumbled paper cup in his free hand. Cars were driving by, a taxi stopped only a few meters from her and Sara let her gaze follow the tall, tattooed woman as she closed the car’s door and walked away. The assassin liked being among people, anonymous, an observer, part of and, yet, not part of them at all. She liked people - just as long as she didn’t have to make too much conversation with them. 

She briefly imagined herself sitting in a cafe, with nothing to do but hold Nyssa’s hand and enjoy being human. 

“Sara? You still there?” Alex pulled her back into reality.

“Yeah, sorry, was distracted.” Sara shook her head. “That’s fine, when will you be off work?”, she asked the agent, who hesitantly replied: “Umm… Why exactly…?” 

“Just want to talk. We could talk now, though, if you have a minute. That way, you wouldn’t even have to see me”, Sara hurried to say, she didn’t want to alienate Alex too much.

“Yeah, no - I mean, I’d like to see you but the thing is that I’ll only be off tonight and that’s still like 8 hours from now and I’m sure you have important things to do... But I can take a short break to talk right now.”

A Labrador puppy wobbled closer to her, even climbed up the first step, wagging its tail and sniffing her legs, until his owner pulled him away with an apologetic look. Sara couldn’t suppress a grin.

“Great”, she agreed. 

“Great”, Alex echoed and there was a moment of silence between the two women. Finally, Sara cleared her throat, deciding to start the conversation with something personal to avoid making this any more awkward.

“How’s your Maggie-situation coming, Danvers?”

There was a small pause at the other end of the line. She might have misjudged the effect of a personal question. So much about awkward silence. Then, Alex said: 

“Oh, umm… well, let’s just say that I’m trying my best, but… it’s hard. I miss her - so much.” Sara heard her voice crack just that little, barely noticeable bit before Alex asked: “And you? Are you still… thinking about going back to her all the time?”

“Huh, those words must’ve left an impression if you can quote me.” Sara was positively surprised.

“They made me feel less alone in that moment”, the agent stated candidly. The blonde actually felt touched and smiled softly. “Genuinely glad to hear that, Alex.” 

For some reason, she felt comfortable talking about feelings with Alex, the topic didn’t give her this weird anxiety of becoming vulnerable and Sara enjoyed that freedom. After all, her conversation with Alex Danvers might even somehow have led her to Nyssa again.

There was a two seconds long pause before Sara added: “As a matter of fact, I did not go back to her. But I found her in the future - who would’ve guessed that…?” Sara laughed softly and continued: “We don’t know exactly why, yet, but we found each other again and it’s going really well. She’s actually part of my crew now and… well, I’m just glad I am with her.” Thinking about the night before, Sara smiled to herself and heard Alex replying that she hoped things would work out for Sara and her Maggie. She sounded genuine, even though there was still a hint of sadness audible in her tone.

“Nyssa, her name is Nyssa…” After a second, Sara cleared her throat and stated: “Okay - enough of my love life, Danvers.” She changed the topic to what she had been planning to discuss. “I’m calling to ask for your help, since you have a secret government organization and their funds to work with and I don’t.”

“I’m not sure I can just give you money, Sara, sorry”, Alex sounded apologetic.

Sara unconsciously shook her head and started to summarize the problem for the agent. “I don’t need your money. Nyssa has money enough for all of us, I guess.”

“Not sure where this is going but I’m glad your girl is rich, Sara”, Alex commented.

Sara snorted. She hadn’t thought about it that way. Without going into the topic further, she continued: “Okay, listen, I have an evil dark magician here, who wants world domination and does everything in his power to get on my nerves. Remember what I told you about my sister back on Earth-X?”

“Of course…”

“See, he’s the man who killed her. Also, he now likes to play a game he probably calls ‘How can I get Sara to break and/or work for me’, whereas I’d like to call it ‘How many times can he annoy me before I find a way to permanently kill the bastard’ - pardon my language.”

Alex listened intently. “Okay…”

“Anyways, I need help to build some kind of ‘magic dampener’, something that will stop Damien Darhk from breaking Nyssa’s neck while he’s standing 20 feet from her.”

“A ‘magic dampener’…?”

“Yup. Something to switch off his powers.”

Thoughtfully, Alex stated: “Huh, I’ve never heard of anything like that. But we build gadgets to deal with superpowers all the time; I could definitely ask Winn about it. He’s a colleague at the D.E.O. Do you have any kind of data that can tell us anything about the source of his power? Of what he can do exactly and where he draws his energy from?”

Sara sighed heavily. “He had something like a totem, an idol, but I don’t know what he’s been using,  _ if _ he’s been using anything specific, since he came back from the dead.”

“Okay, we’ll have to figure that - wait, he what?!”

Sara blinked. “Oh right, that’s not normal, I guess”, she huffed amused and briefly explained that she, too, had been dead, more than once, but only once for real and for over a year and that it had sucked when she didn’t have a soul after the resurrection.

Alex’ voice showed slight traces of panic when she whispered: “Wait… are you like … Shit, I had… I slept with a woman who was dead for over a year?!”

This time, Sara full on laughed. “Didn’t kill my skills, though, did it...?”, she joked provocatively and heard Alex groan in embarrassment. 

It took Alex three seconds to regain her control before she hesitantly grumbled: “No, no, they’re definitely… good.”

Sara grinned and thanked the agent, while she again heard someone laughing in the background.

“Ugh, my sister’s making me wanna punch her in the face”, Alex mumbled in annoyance and Sara suggestively replied: “I advise you not to, you’ll probably break your hand and your fingers are too valuable to mess with…”

“Sara! Please, stop it, for God’s sake”, Alex gasped and Sara could practically hear her blush.

“Okay, okay, I get it”, Sara laughed and knew she shouldn’t push her luck. Then, she heard a struggle, some verbal attacks and suddenly, another voice was talking to her.

“Hey Sara! I assume you’re on our earth, since you’re calling - how about we all do lunch together? I don’t want to miss the opportunity to catch up, Alex can definitely use some sunlight, I always feel better in the sun and I’ll go have lunch with Lena and Winn anyways, so you two could just tag along...?”

“Kara, hey, good to hear you”, Sara smiled. She liked the bubbly woman, she reminded her to be positive and light as often as possible.

“Kara, please, we have loads of stuff to do, I can’t just up and leave, I -”

“Nonsense, Alex, you can leave whenever you want, you’re the Director”, Kara replied sternly and then, to Sara, added: “She’ll get over it one day. Maybe, lunch will be a good thing to make my sister realize it’s okay to have a history”.

“Director, huh? Nice! I can definitely do lunch; Alex mentioned you have a big appetite for potstickers…? I can go for those, remind me of home”, the assassin agreed and heard Kara getting excited.

“Oh, yeeeees, potstickers, definitely, we’ll get Asian food, great! Did you guys actually make time to talk about me while you were drunk?”

The Captain laughed. “I don’t think so. We were otherwise occupied. We did both go on a rescue mission for you, though.”

“Right, forgot about that.”

“Okay, enough! Kara, give me back my phone!” 

A second later, Alex said: “12.30 at the ‘Saien’ restaurant downtown, alright? On the terrace. See you later, Sara.”

Then, she hung up.


	24. Past, Present and Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I've gotten overwhelmingly positive response regarding the filler chapters so far, thank you so much. Also, please go ahead and tell me if you have specific things you like or dislike, I always appreciate the feedback. So, since I need to put that field trip into some context and make it work logically, there will be a few more chapters with less Legends and more Supergirl affiliations, I hope that's okay with you. Tell me if you hate it, I'll re-write stuff then :) Now, the next chapter is a little shorter but I'll update soon, promise!  
> Have fun :)

“Kara! It’s great to see you!” The two blonde women hugged each other. For some reason, the warm and cheerful personality of Kara Danvers had always made Sara feel comfortable and the hug was genuine, although only having met a few times. It seemed the Danvers sisters had sneaked their way into her former cold assassin’s heart.

“How have you been”, Sara wanted to know, taking in the excited glow on the younger one’s face.

Kara smiled at her and answered enthusiastically: “Good, good, you too? Come on, over here”, and without further ado grabbed her arm and pulled her over to a table close to the far end of the rooftop terrace. 

Alex Danvers got up on her feet and offered Sara a hand, obviously still not sure if this was a hug thing or not. Sara grinned and went in for the hug. “Relax Alex”, she whispered. “We talked about this, we can be adults about it.” Alex sat back down and swallowed her embarrassment. “Right”, she mumbled.

Kara introduced the two people unknown to Sara. 

“This is Winn, he’s working with us at the D.E.O., and this is Lena, my, uhh… best friend - boss - depending on who you’re talking to, I guess -” Fumbling with her glasses for a second, she stopped short and then just said: “This is Lena.”

The raven-haired woman, dressed in an impeccably-tailored, dark blue pantsuit that exuded confidence and elegance while being appropriate business attire, got up from her chair and offered Sara her hand. Her intriguing eyes immediately drew Sara in. The woman in front of her had very subtle heterochromia and with how the sunlight illuminated her face, Sara could see that one eye was of a greyish blue while the other had a more greenish colour. They were hypnotizing. She shook the woman’s hand while a grin was tugging at the corners of her mouth, a flirty sparkle in her own, crystal-blue eyes. 

“Wow, you are one beautiful woman, Lena.”

Lena laughed softly and Sara admired the bone structure and open facial expression.

“Why thank you very much”, Lena replied with a wink and Sara hummed in appreciation. “I can give that right back to you, Miss…”, she continued and Sara finished her sentence with: “Lance. Sara Lance.”

Lena tilted her head with approval. “Classic Bond move, I see.”

Sara was surprised. “You know that mo- of course you know that movie, why wouldn’t you know that movie, everyone does”, she tried to cover up her confusion. To her relief, Kara jumped in. 

“Oh, it’s okay, Lena knows.”

The woman in question arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow at Kara. “What do I know?”

Kara averted her gaze without an evident reason. “Uh… About the whole multiple earths thing”, she said and shrugged.

Comprehension lit a spark in Lena’s eyes. “Oh yes, the multiverse - fascinating, isn’t it? I’ve always suspected it existed but having confirmation… I understand you thought Jane Bond didn’t exist on our earth…?”

Sara, who had just admired Lena’s interest in science and wondered what kind of business she was just taking a lunch break from, now pursed her lips in surprise. “Now, that has a nice ring to it. It’s James Bond for us, a variety of different ones, really.”

Lena was on this information more or less immediately after a split-second of looking almost…  _ sour? _

“Really? Fascinating. I have to admit, I’m not a big movie fan, I only watch them with these guys. I’d love to talk more about your earth, Sara, I have so many questions regarding -” She stopped mid-sentence, straightening up her back a little. Lena apologized and sat back down. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me, you didn’t even get to know Winn yet.” 

The man looked surprised he was paid attention to. He visibly drew in a deep breath before he held out a hand to Sara. “I didn’t want to interrupt, but, uh, I, too, am a scientist and interested in the multiverse and I appreciate being part of this conversation. Hiii, I’m Agent Winn Schott.” Sara laughed at his awkward introduction. 

“How do you know the Danvers sisters?”, Lena asked curiously, as Sara was shaking Winn’s hand.

“Oh, well, funny story.” Sara plopped down in her chair. “Actually, Kara and I know each other from… work.” She looked at the blonde trying to figure out how much exactly she was allowed to say. When Kara smiled and nodded, prompting her to go on, she explained: “Kara was on my earth a while back and we fought some bad guys together, she gave me the brush-off, though, when I asked her to go for a drink. We met again a few months ago for a friend’s wedding. That time, Alex was there, too, the two of us got drunk and hooked up at the wedding reception, that’s how I got to know her”, she shrugged and winked at Alex, who nearly choked on her glass of water and used a lot of self-control to not spit anything out. 

Kara giggled at Winn’s expression and Alex’ embarrassment and added: “I swear, I have never seen my sister as flustered as that next morning”.

Alex buried her face in her palms. “Gosh, please, stop…”

Lena chuckled and then her face showed surprise. “Wait a minute, you are  _ that  _ Sara Lance.”

Sara was a little confused. “Guilty as charged, I guess?”

“Now I know why your name rang a bell. Kara talked about you. The time travelling Captain who made Alex forget her broken heart for one night.”

That sounded like some summary of a fairytale and Sara wasn’t sure exactly how to feel about that. They had bonded over scotch, then they both had been drunk, then they both had had needs and that was that. It hadn’t been that big of a deal to her… 

Alex threw her hands in the air. “Really, Kara? Really? Don’t be confused if I decide to talk to your friends about how you spent hours and hours on that scrapbook page of you envisioning yourself at the beach with C-” Kara almost tipped over the table, as fast as she had a hand covering Alex’ mouth. Sara was sure there had been some Super-speed involved. 

“I definitely think we should get something to eat now”, Kara almost shouted and Winn raised his eyebrows. 

“I kinda really want to hear the story now”, he complained, biting back a grin.

“Well, nope, not happening - Alex, we’re gonna go inside and ask for the menus now, come on!” She dragged her sister away and Winn turned to Sara.

“Well, Captain Lance, it’s actually nice to meet you. I, uh, I’ve heard a lot of things about you, most of which are really good, also, to be fair, everyone needs to pay their bills and some jobs are tougher than others, right?” He was visibly nervous. “I mean, I mainly heard about how you helped save my friends from the Earth-X Nazis, really. Nothing much about your other… professions”, he rambled and Sara smiled but at the same time gave him a look that asked him very directly to shut up.

Lena had lifted one eyebrow in amusement. Sara cleared her throat and changed topics. She didn’t need to draw more attention towards her assassin career. Not that she was ashamed of it anymore, but it was usually a conversation-killer for people she had just met. Sara internally rolled her eyes at her pun. 

“So, Winn, you work with the Danvers sisters, huh? Alex said you were a mechanic, an engineer or something?”

The man looked a bit hurt.

“I’m a genius is what she meant”, he shrugged with an exasperated sigh and then continued more seriously: “But yeah, I’m a technician at the D.E.O. She said something about you needing help with some gadget I might be able to design...?” The tech talk seemed to distract him from being intimidated.

“Mhm, I have a little situation back on my earth… Let’s call it the ‘Magic Dampener Problem’”, Sara explained and both Winn and Lena looked at her expectantly. 

“I have not heard of a Magic Dampener Problem, yet. But I am intrigued, so do go on”, the brown-eyed man encouraged.

Sara chuckled and briefly summarized the whole Darhk story for Winn and Lena. Lena pursed her lips and, when Sara had finished her explanation, noted: “To me, it sounds like it’s more than a ‘little situation’. More like a past, present and future problem if we don’t fix it”. 

At that moment, Alex and Kara rejoined them, handing everyone a menu. 


	25. You Can't Buy Love, But You Can Make It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got great feedback and wishes for more Supercorp so.... This is one of the longer chapters and there's a lot of dialogue happening. I hope you'll like the exchange, there's gonna be some Supercorp developments... Again, thank you for your comments, keep 'em coming :))

“How about we order some food first before we get into saving the world again? I know some of us generally have a big appetite.” Lena playfully arched an eyebrow at Kara.

Alex sighed dramatically but Sara smirked with surprise when she witnessed the eyebrow-quirk Lena gave Kara, who in return slightly bit her lip and looked away. Looking from her to Lena and back, Sara grinned: 

“Good taste in women seems to run in the Danvers family, I see. How long have you two been seeing each other?”

A bomb going off would probably not have caused a much different reaction. 

Alex choked on her water again and coughed in response to that, the spilled liquid staining her black polo shirt even darker. Kara’s eyes were suddenly filled with panic and Lena’s cheeks had turned pink at the question. Winn snorted hard.

“Yeeeeah, they’re not dating, that’s ridiculous. No offense!” He looked at Sara slightly panicky and added: “I mean, they’re both beautiful ladies, that wouldn’t be fair, right? Right…? You guys... aren’t dating, are you? Kara..? Oh, come on.” He looked almost hurt.

Sara was confused and she looked from Winn to Kara to Lena. 

“Umm… That certainly wasn’t a comment directed at food only, was it?”

Now with glowing red cheeks, Lena stammered: “Oh, no, yes, it – it was. Kara and I, we… we’re not seeing each other. I mean - we’re friends. Kara’s my best friend.” Lena was visibly flustered.

“Ohhhhh”, Sara gave Lena a knowing look. From her first impression, Sara wouldn’t have guessed a simple question could make the well-dressed woman lose her composure like that. The assassin had been slightly worried to accidentally have outed them but it appeared she had stumbled over a severe case of denial. 

“I see… I’m sorry, I must have assumed wrong”, she stated unconvincingly. “So… how long have you been -” There was a pointed pause. “- best friends then?”

“Uh…” Lena drew in a deep breath and Sara admired how fast she had recollected herself. She knew virtually nothing about the almost painfully-beautiful woman. Nevertheless, Sara was sure her position in whatever business she was doing was quite high up the ranks, considering the quality of her suit and the way she was carrying herself, slipping back behind a mask relatively smoothly. Part of the League’s training had consisted of psychology and profiling, seeing through people - in order to blend in, appear harmless and get intel. Sara profited from that training every now and then in her daily life. 

“I’m not sure, to be honest. She saved my life when I first moved to National City. And probably every other week since then. She also was my only friend for a while so… Now, Alex is my friend too and there’s Sam, but she moved and, really, no one knows me like Kara -”, she laughed jittery and looked down at her hands in her lap. “I… will never be able to repay her for how much she’s done for me. Both as Kara and as Supergirl.” 

She slowly lifted her gaze from her fingers to briefly look at Kara across from her, who stared at the woman with something in her eyes that looked like…  _ revelation? _ Sara thought.

Alex had obviously seen it, too. “Oh my God… it all makes sense now. I suspected with  _ you,  _ Kara, but - wow. Now it’s all clear. She’s right. Sara is right”, she gasped and stared at her sister with her mouth open.

Kara shook her head vigorously. “We’re not dating, Alex! Lena is my friend.”

More to herself than in response, Alex mumbled: “Well, then you should be. I cannot believe I was as oblivious as you two…”

Winn looked thoughtful for a few seconds and then his eyes grew wide with sudden realization. “Remember, when you first came out to me as Supergirl, how I thought it was about you being a lesbian, ‘cause you sure dress like one, and you said -”

“Winn, I’m not gay!” A couple of heads turned and Kara blushed. Sara leaned back in her chair, following the conversation with furrowed eyebrows.

Winn nodded in response to Kara’s outburst. “Exactly, that’s what you shouted back then, too. But you two - you do like each other.” He pointed his finger at the two of them.

“Of course, she’s my best friend”, the Girl of Steel sounded a bit angry, although having lowered her voice a little. The technician, however, didn’t want to let it go just yet. 

“Now that we’re talking about it, remember when Lena filled your office with flowers, Kara...? All of CatCo smelled like peonies for a week or so.” 

_ Filled her office…  _ The Captain was impressed. A bold move, but still classy. Not the romantic gesture she would make herself, but then again, Sara had never been the flower-kinda-girl. And since Nyssa knew that, there had never been any room full of flowers for either of them.

“Yeeess, aaand… it… was because she knows, as my best friend, how much I like flowers, Winn, and she wanted to thank me for saving her!” Kara tried reasoning with him. 

“Yeah, you can send someone a bouquet to say thank you, Kara. Also, you said that her explanation for the flowers was that not Supergirl but  _ you  _ were her hero”, Alex jumped in. 

_ The hero-compliment… What a very subtle thing to say…  _ Lena had probably said that before she knew the two of them were the same people. Sara watched the situation unfold and carefully poured herself a glass of water to sip on while watching the two women in question become more and more nervous.

“And when you quit being a reporter and she bought the whole company for 750 million dollars, so you’d come back to work...?” Alex questioned and now it was the Captain, who nearly choked on her water. She hastily wiped some drops off her chin. 

Lena sank deeper into her chair and Kara stammered: “That... was… not how things went, she didn’t even know I quit, and also it was  _ clearly _ an investment she made, Lena’s a business woman.” 

She had to be an incredible business woman with that much money, Sara thought impressed. That was probably an even bigger business than Nyssa’s future company was.

Lena cleared her throat, as if to interrupt, but only looked over to Sara and the two women locked gazes for a moment.

In that moment, Sara realized that Lena was younger than she appeared due to the way she held herself. It seemed to Sara as if the other woman was searching for something in her gaze, something that would give her a reason to trust the blonde instead of just getting up from her chair and walking away from the conversation they were having. There was something lonely in her eyes, masked with distance and cool. Sara knew that look. She knew it from years of training not to trust people easily. To Lena, Sara was a total stranger and even though her friends knew the Captain, she had no reason to be fine with discussing personal matters in front of her, Sara was aware of that. Hell, she probably would’ve uttered some very direct threats by now if her team had simply started discussing her feelings in front of a stranger. So, Sara held Lena’s gaze, let her search and calculate risks and after some seconds just gave her a small but genuine smile. A moment later, Lena returned it with a small nod and then let her gaze drop to her hands in her lap again.

“You risked exposing your identity to  _ everyone _ by rushing her to the D.E.O. after she was poisoned and you flew across the city as Kara Danvers, although it would have literally taken you less than two seconds to change.” While Sara’s attention had been on Lena, Alex, her voice low so that only the four of them could hear her, had apparently started recounting all the situations that had been significant, as she went on to remind Kara of how she had always stood up for Lena. “In the stickiest situations and even when she was arrested for murder or treason or other whatnots and literally nobody, including Winn and me, trusted her anymore, you were by her side”. 

_ Murder and treason? _ No wonder she was searching for a reason to trust. Sara now really badly wanted to learn more about who Lena actually was.

“I-” Kara couldn’t even retort anything anymore and instead just fumbled with her glasses. 

“And you, Luthor -” Alex pointed a finger at the dark-haired woman across the table, who jumped a little at the look of reproach. “I’m surprised you haven’t bought this restaurant, yet, just because you know it’s my sister’s favourite!” 

Lena looked like she wanted to be anywhere but on that rooftop terrace at that moment. Still trying to keep her composure, she cleared her throat and somewhat guiltily stated: “Uhhh… about that… it’s mine, actually…”

Sara snorted with laughter and Alex looked indignant at all of this coming out only now. 

“Oh of course it is. Why am I not the least surprised…?”

Kara, however, looked surprised. “That’s why it’s still open. When they threatened to close down two months ago…”

“... You were so upset when you came over, ranting about it, I thought… I knew it would make you happy if it stayed open…” Lena tried to help herself by explaining but for whatever reason was not able to make a solid point.

“I… I’m glad it’s still open! But, Lena, you don’t have to spend millions and millions of dollars on me just so that I’m happy, I can never repay you!” Kara looked overwhelmed and Lena looked down onto the table. 

“There is nothing to repay, Kara. I’m still new to this whole best friends thing and… I don’t know how else to do this”, she admitted quietly.

Sara pursed her lips and finally jumped into the conversation: “Did I get it right that your solution to not knowing how to ‘people’ is to spend horrendous amounts of money...? ‘Cause I’m certainly not an expert on the being-a-good-friend-matter, but even I know that friendship can’t be bought. And love certainly cannot either…” She let her last words hang in the air and they became heavier with every second no one objected to their usage. 

Finally, Alex pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing deeply. 

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. I can’t believe I didn’t realize you two were screwing”, she cursed at herself.

Lena looked up at Alex, carrying a surprised and slightly amused expression on her face, as if she wanted to say that if they had ever been together intimately, Lena sure would remember. Without saying anything, though, she went back to staring at the table to avoid eye contact with anyone else. 

“We’re not!” Kara’s voice was a little higher than usual and again, some people turned their heads towards their table. Winn now looked like all of his dreams just came true, as his cheeks slowly took on the colour of his red sweater vest, and Sara… kind of felt as if she should have come to Earth-38 earlier because apparently, this whole thing had been going on for a while.

“I’m  _ not _ gay, okay??” 

“Literally nobody says you are, Kara”, Alex retorted, clearly annoyed.

Sara briefly wondered why it was so hard for Kara to admit what she was feeling. It had never been hard for her with Nyssa. It had - of course - been a little stressful because Ra’s al Ghul had never approved of their relationship. The feelings, though - never had it been so clear for Sara what she felt. But then again, she and Nyssa had never been friends. There had always been something more, something deeper, something essential about their companionship, even before they had realized they loved one another. It had to be difficult to fear losing something good, something important, the bond of friendship with someone special, over admitting what the heart wanted. What if that deep affection was unrequited and would always stand in the way of a good friendship...?

“Seriously, three weeks ago, Lena was still dating James, even if we wanted to - and that’s a big, hypothetical if and also totally not your business - I mean, when would we have had the opportunity? It just doesn’t make sense Alex, so stop projecting”, Kara’s voice was strained and Sara realized that this was a delicate moment. The agent in question opened her mouth to retort something but Sara let her hand rest on Alex’ thigh under the table and Alex was immediately distracted.

Sara smiled at Kara.  “I’m also not gay, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m madly in love with the most wonderful woman on earth – my earth, of course, no offense.”  


Ignoring Sara’s statement for the sake of her argument, a little softer, slightly nervous even, the other blonde added: “Well, but Lena was with Jack before she dated James, she’s obviously not into women.” 

Winn leaned over to Sara, adding very quietly: “She also killed Jack to save Supergirl, before she even knew it was Kara”. Sara blinked and arched her eyebrows in surprise.

Lena furrowed her brows and pulled her gaze away from the table. For the first time in this conversation, she kept her eyes on Kara. 

“We’ve never talked about this because it never came up… I was also with Veronica. For quite some time actually, partly because mother hated her. We had a big fight, though. It was ugly. I… have never been great with people; I think that’s one of the features that run in the Luthor family. V and I haven’t talked since, call it mutual aversion, especially with our different career paths and my affiliations to you...”

Kara looked baffled and so did Alex. Winn connected the dots for Sara, whispering: “Veronica Sinclair, they went to boarding school together. Ronny, however, now goes by the name Roulette, deserves the title ‘bad girl’ more than anyone else I know. She’s stuck on an alien planet though, definitely out of the picture.” Sara nodded appreciatively and returned her attention to the ongoing conversation just as Lena’s tone got a little defensive.

“No, I don’t – Look, I’m not exactly proud of that period of my life, Kara, I did a lot of questionable things but enjoying the company of women is not one of them and I’m sorry if that information doesn’t fit the picture you painted of me. But I’m not going to vindicate my past choices, no matter how many women were involved. None of that is for you to judge.”

Alex’ eyes widened a little as she jumped in to soothe the waters before Kara could respond something. “Oookay, I think we can all agree that our past doesn’t define who we are today, ‘cause I sure would rather not have slept with one or two men and if those defined me…” - she shivered ever so slightly.

Kara lifted her hands apologetically and shook her head in genuine concern: “No, no, please, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you, I - I was just surprised, that’s all. I’m sorry, Lena. Of course I’m not judging, you... “ - she cleared her throat - “you just… liked girls, too.”

“I still do...”

“You… still do… Yes.”

There was an awkward moment of silence before Sara cleared her throat. 

“Wow, I definitely did not expect my day to go like this when I got up this morning, and all of that before even ordering lunch”, Sara mumbled to herself and then stated that she should probably go back to her earth and try to get someone else to help with her problem, as they were clearly distracted. 

Lena shook her head to herself, inhaled deeply and her expression turned serious. A second later, she turned her chin up, then pursed her lips and a strictly professional look was in her eyes. Lena Luthor got up from her chair, clenched her jaw and rested her palms on top of the table, leaning forward towards Sara. Sara looked up at her and felt her stomach drop.

She calmly addressed the Captain. “Well, Miss Lance, since I don’t feel any desire for lunch anymore and I am intrigued by your problem on your earth, I suggest we head over to L-Corp and try to think of something to help you out. Mr. Schott will join us. Kara and I can talk later, you travelled here to get our help, let’s deal with that first.”

Sara swallowed and actively calmed down her heartbeat by thinking of the peaceful mountains of Nanda Parbat. She definitely had a thing for powerful, beautiful women. However, this was neither the time, nor the place to be turned on.  _ Nor the woman to be turned on by, _ she scolded herself.

A moment later, she had recollected herself. “Of course, Ms. Luthor, I’d be happy to have you on my team for the time being”, Sara stated, just as serious as Lena. She turned her attention towards a confused Kara. 

“Rain check on lunch, I guess...?” she asked with a shrug, nodding her head at both Danvers sisters, and then added: “I’m sorry if I got you into trouble, Kara, that certainly wasn’t my intention.” She wasn’t sure if the reporter had actually heard her, it looked like she was just coming out of a daze.

The Captain leaned over to Alex and lowered her voice. “Alex, may I ask you to be kind to my friend? You and I both know it’s not always easy…”

Alex turned her head sideways and made eye contact with the assassin. It was the closest their faces had been since that one night. 

“You know she has super hearing, right...?” Alex whispered and then raised an eyebrow at Sara. It took Sara a second to realize that the next thing Alex said she stated in fluent Russian. “But she can’t understand every single language at least. I’m sorry for the drama, Sara. I’m not really angry at her for not telling me she’s into women as well, I mean, I would’ve understood, obviously” - she ignored the fact that Kara was protesting the use of a foreign language to keep her out - “but I get that everyone needs different amounts of time to come to terms with their sexuality. Or needs to meet the right person… It’s rather the fact that I had to endure months and months of Mon-El drama, him constantly annoying the hell out of me by treating her like shit while Lena was  _ right there _ \- I mean, I would  _ much _ rather have listened to my sister gushing about her, I would at least have understood why.”

Sara stared at her and chuckled under her breath. 

“I guess Manuel was her boyfriend?” Her Russian was good, not as fluent as Alex’ but still almost accent-free. The language pills the original Team Legends had taken in their earlier  working days had worn off after a while. Gideon and Ray had produced something similar - a pill Ray had proudly presented as “Lingu-in” and that now went as “Penguin” among the team - but they only worked up to 72 hours and one of the side-effects were severe mood swings after they wore off. In order to keep the peace, the team had reduced the usage of such language aids to only if necessary on missions. Sara briefly wondered how Alex knew she spoke Russian but decided to ask her about it some other day. 

“So you’re giving them crap just because you didn’t like your sister’s ex?” 

“Maybe”, Alex shrugged and then added: “Thank God it’s finally her ex. And also: I’m her sister, sometimes I like to get on her nerves.”

Sara laughed and got up from her chair. Alex mirrored her movement and they hugged briefly. 

“See you around, Danvers”, Sara said, switching back to English, and for a split second saw a shadow of grief flash across the agent’s face before she returned her smile.

Sara then hugged Kara and told her sorry again. The younger woman shook her head no. “It might be a good thing we’re finally talking about things.”

“I’ve recently learned that talking about things isn’t always bad, you know…” Sara smiled. “Good luck, Super, she seems to be a gem, smart, hot  _ and  _ rich, good pick”, she winked and Kara blushed again.

“She’s so much more than that but I hope you can find that out for yourself, Captain.”


	26. Worth A Million Bucks

Even with the three of them in the back, Lena’s car was more than spacious. Winn was seated between Sara and Lena, and the blonde was glad about that. She was thinking of Nyssa and hoped everything was going okay back home. Winn apparently wasn’t opposed to the arrangement either. Their discussion was mostly random smalltalk; Sara shared bits and pieces about her earth and was surprised at how different some things, especially in politics, were handled on Earth-38. Politics generally did not matter much to her personally, as she was mostly unaffected by them, since on the Waverider, current events had virtually no impact on them. The Captain was, however, painfully aware that there was a lot to do and there were still many battles to win in order for people to be safe and treated as equals, no matter how they looked and whom they loved. From the team’s experiences with Earth-1’s future, she knew that for most minorities, things would not get better any time soon, so she liked the types of progressive laws Lena and Winn told her about. Furthermore, the idea of a female president was something she could definitely get behind. And the ambitious Earth-38 movement to grant aliens and humans equal rights was also pretty amazing, even though Sara was relatively sure they didn’t need that on Earth-1, since there were no aliens permanently living there.

“Maybe they’re just afraid to come out”, Lena suggested and Sara hummed in thought. _Seems to be a pattern..._ The peaceful existence of aliens among humans on her earth definitely wouldn’t be the weirdest thing she had come across since she became part of the Legends. In fact, it wouldn't even make the top 5.

At some point, Winn felt compelled to mention how weird it was that he seemed to be the only straight person around, upon which Lena commented drily: “Being queer is not weird. Also, I'm certain Gary here is the only straight person around, Mr. Schott. None of us have forgotten your obsessions with the men in Supergirl’s life.”

Winn looked hurt and a hint of red crept up his neck. Sara smirked.

“I know a Gary, too, and he is definitely not straight”, she chuckled, thinking of Ava Sharpe’s assistant. Lena’s driver looked at her through the rear-view mirror, a small smile on his lips. “Aaaaand he looks just like him, wow this doppelganger-shit is crazy.”

Lena laughed and Winn asked curiously: “Do you have another one of me, too?”

When Sara shrugged and slightly shook her head, showing that she didn’t know about his Earth-1 look-alike, he looked smug. “Of course not, there’s only one lucky person with this face.” He motioned to said face and both Sara and Lena chuckled with amusement.

 

L-Corp was a huge company complex. The people in the lobby greeted Lena with respect and admiration and she addressed everyone talking to her by name. Sara was impressed. The CEO seemed to be loved by her employees and took the time to listen to the questions of her staff and either answer accordingly or promise to get to the issue as soon as possible. It took a while for them to get to one of the, undoubtedly many, labs that Lena had built in the basement of the building. There were two scientists in white coats working in the lab Lena opened the door to, and she addressed them immediately as they entered.

“Mrs. Rossi, Mr. Nguyen, I’m very sorry to interrupt, I’m afraid I will unexpectedly need this room today. How far are we on the toxicity testing regarding engineered nano-sized nutrients?”

The scientists hastily got up from their seats and grabbed a few papers before meeting Lena, Sara and Winn by a glass cube in the middle of the room. The cube contained shelves full of little boxes of soil and what looked like seeds, seedlings and growing plants, each box labeled with a combination of letters and numbers. Sara quickly scanned them but realized there were too many to immediately count them.

“Four out of the last five testings suggest that the applied nutrients suppress fungal diseases in crop plants, Ms. Luthor”, the small, black-haired woman stated and, while looking at her notes, added: “However, the most recent testing wasn’t successful. We don’t know exactly why, yet. We will have to proceed to eliminate variables in our studies.”

Lena nodded thoughtfully. “Four out of five is a good start. But we’ll have to be one hundred percent sure that the nanotech is only targeting the fungal diseases and cannot cause any adverse health effects to the millions of people all over the world we could feed with our tech.”

“Of course, Ms. Luthor”, Mr. Nguyen jumped in. “People’s safety is our number one priority. Test object CL-225 is the one to show fungal infestation despite being treated with the same tech as RS-271, ER-143, SN-207 and BC-124.” He tapped against the glass cube, pointing at the different growing plants while reciting their labels.

“Then what is the difference between them?” Lena asked. “It looks like the soil here is lighter in colour.” She looked at the box labeled CL-225 and furrowed her brows.

Mr. Nguyen nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, this soil contains more silt than the others, it usually creates a fertile soil. It might be the reason the fungus is able to spread faster than in the other objects, but we don’t know for sure.”

“Yet. We will get there, Ms. Luthor, that’s a promise. So far, everything has been going great, it was a matter of time until we hit a little bump. But that may be a good thing. It’s better we notice here rather than in the field. And we’ll microscopically monitor the reaction of human skin cells to the nanotech for the next 30 days, so don’t worry.” Mrs. Rossi, probably around 50 years old, was carrying an encouraging smile on her face.

Lena drew in a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m too impatient. You’re doing great work. Thank you.” She shook her head at herself and changed the topic. “Unfortunately, I’ll have to ask you to leave this lab for the rest of the day, as I need it for an emergency I have to deal with. You can use the free office on the third floor, room 3.07, and get your documentations up to date. You may go home once you’re done, you’ll obviously get the whole day paid, since I kicked you out.”

For a second, Sara thought the two would ask about the emergency. However, they just smiled, thanked Lena, nodded to Winn and Sara and quietly powered down their computers, got some folders and left without further ado.

Sighing, the CEO turned around, shoulders tense, brows furrowed. “Sorry it took so long. But I do have people here working in immensely important fields. I need to at least briefly check in on them.”

Sara shook her head and pointed over her shoulder to the glass cube. “No way you are going to apologize for literally going up against world hunger. I mean, talk about heroes… That’s amazing! Can we get that to my earth once it’s done? Also let me just say: you’re great with people, Lena.”

Lena chuckled but her following words sounded bitter. “Thank you, Sara. But I am in no way a hero. I’m just trying to repair what my brother has destroyed. Both all over the world and in people’s minds.” Her right hand on her neck, she tried to knead out some of the tension in her muscles. She looked tired.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you are definitely one of the most inspiring women I’ve ever met - and I’m talking throughout history and on different earths here. Not only are you worth I don’t know how many million bucks and use them to help people, you look like a million dollars, too.”

Sara’s face showed admiration and Lena noticed it with an amused grin tugging at the corners of her lips.

“I wish everyone looked at me like that”, she winked and Sara cleared her throat.

“Sorry, uh, too unprofessional? I can’t help it”, the Captain shrugged with a flirty twinkle in her eye.

Lena visibly relaxed and the two of them turned to Winn, who had surprisingly not said a word since entering the lab. It turned out, the technician was as in awe as Sara was, however not of either of the women but the interior of the lab. His mouth slightly agape, Winn looked absolutely star-struck by the various technical devices on the different desks, the microscopes and computers, the flickering holographic 3D models of gadgets yet to be built on the far right side of the room, the glass cube containing the crops and a smaller glass cube on an isolated column about 10 feet from it. Something shapeshifting was restlessly moving around in it and just as Sara realized it wasn’t one thing but many small things moving together like a swarm, Winn found his tongue again.

“Are… oh. my. god. Lena Luthor, are those…?”

“Nanobots, yes.”

“Please tell me that’s not Jack’s remains.” Winn looked appalled and intrigued at the same time.

“What? Of course not! Who do you take me for?” Lena’s face showed disgust.

Sara wasn’t sure what they were talking about but instead of asking, she moved closer to the cube. She semi-listened to Winn rambling on and watched the bots swarm around in the container.

“Okay, wow, phew, that’s great because I think they’re uh-mazing and it would’ve been very weird to say that if -” Winn stopped short and realized this wasn’t a good topic. “Damn, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me today.”

Sara turned her attention back to the conversation as the man struggled to dig himself out of his dilemma.

“I will just change topics and hope I don’t die today because I put my foot in my mouth. Anyway. This -” he gestured to various things around him - “this is the coolest lab I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I feel like it’s Christmas and my birthday together!” Enthusiasm was written all over his face and Sara laughed. He was right, it was pretty amazing. She would have loved to do research here, instead of the dark, wet, smelly lab on the Amazo. Sara was sure the results would’ve been much better without the human test subjects and with a million dollar research fund in the background.

“I can assure you it’s also the most expensive lab you’ve ever seen.” Lena didn’t seem to be over the last topic just yet and Sara’s suspicion was confirmed when the CEO motioned for them to follow her over to the next desk.

“Sara, how about we finally get to the bottom of your problem and find a way to fix it, instead of talking of dead people..?” Her tone was icy and Winn was visibly uncomfortable.

“Uhhh, yeah, sure, usually a good plan, except this one doesn’t work without talking about dead people…” Sara mumbled almost apologetically. She added: “Although technically, Darhk isn’t dead anymore, turns out magic really can bring people back from the dead.”

“Yes, you mentioned that earlier at lunch… What do you know about that man’s magical abilities?”, Lena asked, not sparing Winn another glance for now. “Maybe start with the resurrection - that seems like a thing that would involve dark powers - please, sit.”

Sara nodded and her and Winn sat down on two of the comfortable lab chairs opposite of Lena.

“Well, Darhk was resurrected in 1895, London, there was a lot of blood involved, magic performed by his daughter Nora, who is possessed by the time demon Mallus, who is really dark and powerful and fucks up your brain a lot, if you let him”, she thought aloud.

“And you know this how? The brain part, I mean - I take it you were present at Mr. Darhk’s resurrection”, Lena questioned, taking in all the other information without flinching or raising an eyebrow.

Sara opened her mouth and closed it again without saying something. She repeated that motion twice until she just shrugged with a guilty expression on her face.

The brunette wouldn’t have it. “Miss Lance, I need you to be honest, otherwise we won’t be able to help you”, the CEO pressed.

Sara sighed in defeat. She needed help. Plus, it wasn’t like she could possibly say no to Lena anyway... “It’s quite a long story. I’m gonna have to tell you about my tragic life and you’ll have to give me the benefit of the doubt and try not to judge me harder than I already judge myself.”

The two scientists nodded, prompting her to go on.

“Wonderful, here goes”, Sara mumbled sarcastically and then started telling her story.

“I was lost at sea many years ago, a shipwreck. From the moment I set foot on the ship, there was, uh, pain around every corner, I guess. Many bad things happened. I had to do terrible things to survive. After about two years, and after once again almost being swallowed by the sea, I was found by a woman, who... took me home and nursed me back to health. She was the daughter of the leader of a secret organization. In order to live, I had to pledge allegiance to the League of Assassins. They trained me, I worked for them, they became my life... Fast forward about like... six years after officially becoming a member, I don’t know exactly, I go on a scouting mission, should have been information gathering only, but I’m shot and killed by - unimportant.”

The blonde’s voice was without display of emotion as she recounted the events. Lena and Winn were captured in her story, nonetheless.

“I was dead for over a year until my sister decided to resurrect me with the ancient powers of the Lazarus pit. The problem was that, uh, my soul had been wandering for so long that once my body was resurrected, it had no connection to humanity. I was... quite literally a bloodthirsty monster. An exorcist then went on a quest to find my soul in the other realm and both parts of me were put together again and, uh, let’s just say the transition wasn’t flawless. I had a hunger for killing, the assassin in me took full control, I barely got it together, took me a while to get here. That’s why Mallus sees a lot of potential in me, I think. When I tried to save a little girl from his grasp, he chose to join me, he’s a real great source for headaches. I don’t know what he’s planning, I haven’t had enough time to spare to deal with him, yet. Sometimes I have... weirdly violent thoughts in my head but other than that, he’s been pretty quiet so far. I’ve been mostly fine with my team, I mean, I’m a Captain now, we travel through time and screw things up for the better. And that’s that.”

Hearing herself recounting the events, some events, that had occured over the past what must have been like fifteen years was surreal. Time had become an unimportant and flexible concept to Sara, she wasn’t even sure how long they had been aboard the Waverider. She knew it was a lot to take in. If anyone told her what she had just explained she would probably think them crazy. And she hadn’t even started talking about the time travel. Sara pressed her lips together and waited for either Lena or Winn to say something, anything, to break the stunned silence stretching out between them.

“Sooo, when Winn talked about your secret profession earlier, he wasn’t referring to sex work”, Lena concluded and Sara blinked before laughter erupted from her chest, tension draining from her body. Winn looked highly amused by that idea.

“That’s what you thought?", she laughed whole-heartedly. "How am I supposed to fight Nazis with that?”

Lena shrugged, a little flushed. “I don’t know, I wondered myself. By being a distraction? Lull people into a false sense of security and take them out, maybe? I’m not sure. You definitely are attractive enough to make a lot of money in that area of expertise.”

“And here I was giving it out for free like a damn fool”, Sara quipped and playfully raised an eyebrow at Lena. “It does make my job - did make my job - a lot easier though, to be honest. I mean, I kinda stood out, especially in the Middle East and smaller cities in all of Asia, which was where I spent most of those years, being blonde and light-skinned like this and all. But people never assumed I could hurt anyone, they'd see me but they... thought better of me I guess. Since you said Kara talked about me, I thought she would’ve told you about me being a monster...” She shrugged.

“Aww, you’re not a monster, Sara!”, Winn protested. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to cross you but you seem pretty chill for an assassin, not that I know many, but I’ve dealt with a few and at least you got your knives in check and all, I mean you're not even carrying any weapons - hell, I’m most certainly not afraid of you”, he added, the slight tremor in his voice betraying his confident words.

Lena tilted her head with a smile and Sara was grateful for that silent moment they had shared earlier on the rooftop terrace.

“From what I’ve heard so far, there’s darkness inside of you and that’s nothing unusual, Sara. Believe me, I’m a Luthor, I know what I’m talking about. Even if that name doesn’t mean anything to you, I assure you, around here, it closes more doors than it opens, no matter how much money I’ve got. Your darkness doesn’t define you. Your past and what ways got you here, they don’t define you. We do what we must in order to survive and sometimes, that’s not pretty... Your darkness is there and it’s not going anywhere but you are keeping it under control. Your choices matter. And from what I’ve gathered, you turned your back on the assassin career and are trying to do good, sometimes save the world, really, even if it means literally fighting your inner demons.”

The Captain looked at Lena with a hint of curiosity in her eyes. _Murder and treason,_ she remembered.

“You haven’t forgotten that I’m literally here to find a way to kill a man, right? I’m not the hero you make me out to be”, she stated drily.

“You may not be a hero, but you sure are a Legend”, Winn jumped in, looking very proud of himself.

The two women chuckled and rolled their eyes. Sara chose this moment to pull the two throwing knives she was carrying on her belt from underneath her jacket and placed them on the desk next to her, before she bent over and drew a small dagger from each boot and put them down next to the knives.

"I never leave ship without weapons, Winn", she stated and looked him dead in the eye until he gulped and averted his gaze. Lena seemed confused.

"How did you get those through security?"

The assassin smiled innocently and shrugged. "A metal detector only detects metal. And not even all kinds of metal, I may add. Believe me, smuggling things into places is definitely not as hard as you think it is."

Lena lifted her chin slightly and pursed her lips. "I don't know whether to be scared or impressed right now. Because that also means that people here aren't as safe as they think they are."

Sara huffed. "Oh, dear, sorry to burst your bubble but people aren't safe anywhere."

"That sounds both very bleak and quite realistic", Lena sighed and looked over at Winn, who was still glancing at the weapons on the table. When he felt the two women's looks on him, he sat up a little straighter and drew in a deep breath.

“Anyway, as I was saying. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. And we all work in jobs that require sacrifices. And with the D.E.O. work… I don’t know how many people we’ve killed this year alone”, he voiced, the uncertainty in his voice decreasing with every word he spoke. “False. I do know. And it’s a painfully high number. What I’m saying is: we’re not judging. Literally all of us have very dark moments and violent thoughts. Except Kara. She’s a precious bean.” He shrugged.

“Oh believe me when I tell you that Kara… has dark thoughts too.” Lena sighed and before Sara could decide if the raven-haired woman looked worried, aroused or grounded by that statement, she cleared her throat and declared they should get back to problem-solving.

She summarized: “It seems like Damien Darhk’s power comes from the demon Mallus and Sara is host for the same demon. Sounds to me like we need to find a way to tap into that dark energy inside of Sara and reverse its effect.”

Sara stared at Lena and pursed her lips in thought. After a few seconds she blinked and nodded slowly.

“That… is some sound logic. Do you have a plan for that?”


	27. To Fool a Rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My people,  
> I really hope Article 13 isn't gonna screw up everything next week because I really want to finish this fic and I'd like you to be able to read it. If you don't know what Article 13 is, here's a quick summary:   
> The European parliament is discussing to strengthen copyright laws and the solution they came up with is to create an algorithm that automatically tracks, filters and blocks works online that /could/ scratch on copyright infringement. That means that European people might not be able to upload any fiction, art, edits, videos, songs, ... including fandom stuff in the future. If this article goes through, this fic, including many many others from other writers in Europe, might be deleted in a bit. If you want to know how this particular story will end and if you want to continue seeing other content from us Europeans, please sign this petition, it literally takes a second and every voice counts:   
> https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet  
> Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all your support. I hope and pray this isn't the last time I'll update here. But if it is: I loved your comments, your thoughts, your prompts, your excitement and your feels, thank you for supporting me, my writing and Nyssara. I had a blast.  
> And now, without further ado, another chapter of All the Time :)

Half an hour later, Sara found herself lying on a cold metal table. Lena had asked her to change into shorts and a tank top and then had attached adhesive pads to her upper chest, abdomen, thighs, ankles, arms, hands, the sides of her neck and her temples. Now, Sara was hooked up to several screens via dozens of electrodes measuring electric currents in her body.

“Steady heartbeat, normal brainwaves, no unusual muscle activities”, Winn informed them, looking at the screens.

“Well, I gotta say, I feel a bit weird”, Sara retorted and Lena nodded sympathetically.

“I can imagine it must be uncomfortable. If you’re cold, we can get you a blanket. That would also cover you up a bit, if that helps..?”

“It’s... being a test subject myself after having done quite some assisting in questionable research rather than being semi-naked”, Sara stated drily. “What exactly are you hoping to achieve with this?”

“If we can get a reading on something supernatural, alien or… otherwise out of the ordinary in your body, we might be one step closer to reversing its effects…”

The Captain raised an eyebrow. “Do you think you can ‘cure’ me from a demon, Lena?” Her attempt at air quoting resulted in a loud beeping sound.

“Sara, you have to lie still or the readings are compromised”, Winn commented from his desk.

Sara rolled her eyes and mumbled something unintelligible. Lena reattached the electrode on Sara’s right biceps and the blonde felt her cold touch linger a split-second longer than necessary. She cocked an eyebrow at the CEO.

“I do work out a lot”, she joked softly, so only Lena could hear her, and was sure that a hint of a blush was showing on the other woman’s cheek.

 

After about ten minutes of nothing, Sara was getting bored. This wasn’t helping one bit.

“Hey, why do you have all of this stuff at hand anyways”, she asked. “The sensors and monitors and all, I mean. Studying humans a lot or…?”

Lena Luthor looked up from her tablet. “Uh, not really, no.” She shook her head.

Sara warily raised an eyebrow. “Not really…?” she repeated.

An affirmative hum came from the woman, who had returned her attention back to the gadget in her hands, and Sara was thankful that Winn seemed to be a talkative person.

“She did some tests on Sam, a friend of ours, a few weeks back. Sam turned out to have an evil kryptonian worldkiller personality sharing her body, and she tried to kill Kara”, he summarized an apparently long story for Sara.

“Umm… I see.” Sara didn’t actually see anything but she slowly but surely got the impression that the reason Lena and Winn hadn’t been too surprised about Sara’s life story was that weird things, dangerous things, happening was just part of their lives as well. 

“Glad we talked about that”, she mumbled and almost jumped in surprise when Lena suddenly put her tablet down with more force than necessary.

“That’s it. Sam and Reign. It’s almost the same. Winn, the Harun-El!” She sounded enthusiastic and after staring at her for another second, Winn shared her optimistic facial expression.

“Yes! Lena, brilliant. If we can find a way to modify it, we might be able to split the demon and Sara”, he thought aloud. 

Sara turned her head to the side to look at them, causing another warning signal from one of Winn’s screens. He just shut it down while in one swift movement getting up from his chair to then excitedly walk up and down in the lab. Lena mumbled something unintelligible, deeply in thought, and already was engrossed in something on her tablet again, typing almost frantically and swiping at the touch screen as if running through different documents in record time. Since they both seemed to have forgotten about her presence, Sara cleared her throat. 

“Someone care to fill me in...?”

Winn froze mid-movement. “Uh, yeah, sorry!” He cleared his throat. “So... there are different types of kryptonite, rocks from Kara’s home planet Krypton. The green one is like the only thing that can hurt or kill Kryptonians. There’s many different kinds, red and blue and silver and - black. It’s also called Harun-El but that’s unimportant. They all have different effects. The black rock is able to split Kryptonians into two: the good and the evil part if you want. I don’t mean like cut in half but like… uh… kinda like creating a doppelganger only that it’s  _ just  _ the evil parts of their personality. Lena was able to free Sam from Reign by basically giving Reign her own body. It’s all a bit complicated to explain really. Anyway, so, if we can find a way to modify that so it works on  _ your  _ DNA rather than Kryptonians’, we might be able to split what’s  _ not  _ your DNA off and kill it. Or ‘cure’ you, like you said before.”

“Right, exactly”, Lena confirmed and added: “ _ And _ , if our hypothesis is correct and that demon is the source of Mr. Darhk’s magical abilities, us separating the demonic parts from you could give us the tools to separate the two of them as well, thus, taking away the magic.”

Sara blinked. She had no idea how this black rock was supposed to work or how they could make a rock adapt to changing DNA or how it was supposed to split one person into two or whatever all of that actually meant. But if this splitting thing actually worked on her and Mallus and then later on Darhk… Sara suddenly felt something weird, unfamiliar, in her chest.  _ Hope _ .

She sat up slowly. “I - I’ve been on this earth for not even 4 hours. After months and months and  _ months _ of trying to get the upper hand and almost dying multiple times and actually dying and losing people I cared about because of this man - I come here and you’re telling me you might have a solution? Just like that?” Sara was overwhelmed. 

“Well. We might. It’s still a hypothesis. We need to see if we can actually do anything with the black kryptonite and you, since you’re human and it usually only is toxic to Kryptonians in Earth’s atmosphere. There are a lot of variables to take into consideration”, Lena stated. “But… I have studied it pretty intensely when I was trying to save Sam, so I’m optimistic we can figure this out.”

Sara chewed on her bottom lip in thought. “But… hypothetically… couldn’t it also just… separate me from myself..?” she wondered skeptically.

Lena tilted her head with interest. “What exactly do you mean?”

Sara still looked a bit confused. She tried to sort through her thoughts. “What if you accidentally split me into two. Me me. I mean…. I… I just think you really don’t want to meet my pure evil assassin side mixed with demonic powers, while good me is trying to… I don’t know, do the dishes in peace or something..?”

Lena nodded thoughtfully and agreed that she’d rather not have a rogue assassin with no inhibitions whatsoever roam the streets.

“You would still be you, though, Sara. Just… without the darkness. You’d still be able to fight and all of that, you wouldn’t suddenly become a housewife. But yes, you’re right, we don’t want that darkness out there unsupervised. We’ll figure all of that out, Sara. We’ll know if it can affect you at all because you’re not a Kryptonian, and if so, we’ll know how it will affect you. Before we try any experiments - I promise.”

“Yeah. Cool.” The assassin didn’t really know what to say. There were so many things that could go wrong and none of the images in her mind looked particularly inviting. But if this was her only shot at ending this mind-wrecking war with Darhk... 

She suddenly wished Nyssa could be there with her.

The CEO of L-Corp walked over to a cupboard and collected some things from some plastic boxes, before she came back to sit on an office chair next to the metal table Sara was still situated on. 

“Let’s get these pads off and then I’m going to need some of your blood for the DNA test. It’s the fastest option”, she explained apologetically.

“Yeah, I don’t like needles”, Sara stated and Lena looked up at her with surprise.

“Don’t look at me like that. Really, show me one person who likes needles”, Sara complained and Lena looked highly amused by the pout on the assassin’s face.

Winn walked over to them, obviously trying to figure out if she was joking. “You… are an assassin. You were dead and resurrected and you fight demons… how can you be afraid of needles??”

“Shut up, Winn, or I’ll feed you your tongue. I’m not afraid of anything. I just don’t like them, okay? You can shoot me or stab me or even stitch me up afterwards, no problem. But syringes… Ugh. I don’t like it.”

The two scientists looked at the blonde in disbelief and she crossed her arms in front of her chest, which wasn’t too easy with all the electrodes still attached to her body. Sara knew she was being ridiculous but she chose not to say anything else. 

“Are you serious right now?” Winn’s tone was amused but Sara shot him an icy look to underline her former statement and he went pale.

“Don’t do that, Winn, we’re not going to mock anyone for being uncomfortable with anything”, Lena scolded him and he nodded, a soft apology on his lips, and walked back over to the safety of his desk.

Lena sighed. “Okay, I literally just need your blood, if you prefer giving it to me in another way, then I’ll be perfectly content with that”, she tried to be forthcoming and Sara bit her lip to not comment on the wording. Lena had obviously realised it too, a hint of red crept up her neck and she rolled her eyes at Sara. 

“That sounds like you’re offering to stab me, Luthor”, Sara joked, instead of giving an ambiguous comeback and uncrossed her arms.

Lena’s eyes grew wider. “Oh no, definitely not. I can take your blood with a syringe or you can figure out how to fill this by yourself.” She held up a small tube and tilted her head.

Sara looked at the plastic tube for a moment and then sighed in defeat. 

“Fine, I’ll stop being a baby about it, just make it quick.”

“Will I be in danger?” Lena asked with a little smile, a twinkle in her eye.

“You’re lucky you’re so pretty, Luthor, now get on with it.”

 

“Shit!”

Sara looked up at Lena, who rubbed her eyes in exhaustion.

“Shit?” The Captain raised an eyebrow. Usually, when someone said ‘shit’ around her, it was because they had screwed up time again. Unless it was her who said it, she used it quite frequently.

“Ugh, no matter what I do, I cannot get the kryptonite to separate anything in your sample, not your DNA, not the cells, not anything. It literally has no effect.”

Sara sighed. Things looked pretty unspectacular under her microscope as well. It would have been a surprise if something important had just worked at the first attempt. She leaned back into her chair and propped her feet up on the empty one next to her. The assassin had put her own clothes back on after Lena had been content with the red contents of the plastic tube, feeling much more comfortable in her black jeans, boots and soft turtleneck top. She picked at some of the adhesive residue left on her skin from where the electrodes had been attached to her arms.  _ I really need a shower _ , she thought absentmindedly.

“Maybe we should call it a day.” Winn sounded tired, his eyes were red from staring at screens for the past 5 hours. He had been researching resurrection, magic, demons and all things supernatural in hopes of finding a plan B should their kryptonite approach not turn out to be fruitful. He had occasionally asked Sara one or two questions to compare her knowledge of Darhk and his powers with his own findings. Not much had come from his efforts. “It’s kinda late already and I’m guessing Kara is freaking out by now as to why you’re not responding to her texts or haven’t answered her last three calls, Lena.”

Lena massaged her temples with her index fingers. “What am I supposed say to her? That I’m busy? Just ignore the elephant in the room because this is more important?” She shook her head.

“It’s not more important”, Sara disagreed. “I mean, a few weeks ago, I would have assessed it like that, too, but… Look, Lena, I really appreciate the effort - and I admit, it is a rather pressing matter. But it’s my matter, my earth, my reality. Not your’s. You have a life outside of work and being a badass taking on world hunger. And that life… That’s important, too. Again, I really appreciate your help, especially since you’re probably losing money with every second you’re helping me. So… No, this is not more important. Also, even if you don't want to talk things through with Kara at the moment, you should at least tell her you’re okay because she’ll probably just check in on you if you don’t.”

The CEO looked defeated. 

“I don’t want her to worry, it’s just that this needs all of my focus and I have difficulties concentrating on things when she’s around… or always on my mind.”

“Aww, I wish other people saw the adorable side of you, too, Lena”, Winn smiled and she just furrowed her brows in response. 

“Hey, can you hand me that..? Since it’s not working on humans - Thanks.” He deflected her facial expression and then carefully closed his fingers around the black rock Lena handed him. Sara looked at it in thought and then suggested: 

“Actually... Kara is from Krypton, the rock is from Krypton - it kind of makes sense to ask her about it and have her around you for the… case.” 

Lena groaned in frustration. “The last time she found out I was working with kryptonite, things hit a huge bump, I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“That was before you knew she was Supergirl, though, you two have never been closer than now. Plus, you’d literally ask her for help, she should know it’s not something to be used against her, especially when the kryptonite is altered to work for Sara instead of Kryptonians.”

“Maybe, but she’d still be a distraction…”

“Well”, Sara clapped her hands, “women have a tendency to be distractions - the most beautiful ones, though.” 

She got up from her chair and stretched her arms over her head, exposing her toned lower abdomen. Both, Lena and Winn glanced at her skin and while Lena turned away her gaze immediately, Winn mumbled: “Abs-olutely great shape”.

Sara chuckled. “Good pun, nerd. Speaking of distractions: I really need to go home and get distracted by my woman now, we don’t need her to feel compelled to check in on me.”

“The one you mentioned earlier, the woman you’re ‘madly in love’ with, huh” Winn questioned and Sara arched an eyebrow in response.

“So..?”

“Well, I was just thinking. I mean. She must be pretty cool. I’d like to meet her someday.” He shrugged and struggled to hold Sara’s gaze.

Sara grinned, a wicked twinkle in her eye. “Oh, you really don’t. You’re scared of Alex and me, and believe me, we have nothing on my Nyssa, she’s the Demon’s Head, the leader of the League of Assassins, and she’s quite protective.”

Winn’s eyes widened with surprise. “Oh. Her? You’re… The - the woman who saved you, yeah, that makes sense, of course, the leader. Umm, well, I’m - I’m sure you make a great couple. Love, huh? Fascinating thing….” He returned his eyes to the piece of rock he was fiddling with, inspecting it  _ very  _ closely, as if somehow it could make a sudden move otherwise. 

Sara laughed and changed topics for his sake. “Anyway, so, how should we do this? Do I come back tomorrow? Do you need me for something? More DNA or tests? Or do you want to let me know when you found something and then I’ll come back to your earth?”

“I’m afraid nothing will get done until tomorrow”, Lena shook her head. “I’ll need to find a way to make the kryptonite react to your cells at all. And only if that’s safe, we can move on into testings.”

“As far as I know, you’re the sharpest tool in the box, so I’m sure you’ll figure this out”, Sara smirked at the CEO.

Winn pursed his lips in mock disappointment, apparently having recovered from the mild panic he had experienced at the mention of the League of Assassins. “Hey, I’m pretty sharp, too!”

“I know, Winn, you’re great.” Sara nodded matter-of-factly.

“That sounds… like there’s a ‘But…’ following..?” His face showed a questioning expression.

“No, really, I think you’re great.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well, thank you. I think you’re pretty great yourself, Sara”, he shrugged and the three of them laughed softly. 

They were all tired, Sara was sure it was best if they didn’t push for finding a solution for her magical problem. She had seen frustration make scientists take terrible measures and with her being the test subject, she’d rather not risk her new-found sanity.

“Lena?”

“Hm?” The raven-haired woman snapped out of her thoughts. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright, don’t be frustrated. Forget about Darhk for tonight. I suggest you get some take-out and meet up with a certain Super now. Thanks to me being able to travel through time, there’ll be enough time to figure this kryptonite thing out once that’s settled.”

“Right…” Lena sighed for the what seemed like the hundredth time in the last hour. “How can I contact you though, if you’re on another earth in another time?”

“Let’s just say I’ll meet you in two weeks your time? Which could be tomorrow for me”, Sara smiled.

“Can you travel into the future?” Winn asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

Sara chuckled. “Well, technically we’re in the past right now, I think. I don’t really know what year it is. I think we’re around 2019. Time has become a really weird construct. The only thing we kinda care about is not visiting one place at the same time twice because we already managed to break time once -” Winn opened his mouth but Sara just continued. “- long story - but, other than that, the future is only the future until you get there and then it’s present and past at some point.” 

Lena and Winn looked at her with confusion written across their faces. 

“I’m just saying. I can meet you whenever you want. You need more time than two weeks? Fine, a month then? The only problem is that the more time it takes, the more time passes on my earth, even if not for me on the Waverider, and the things Darhk does, they manifest. Time wants to happen. So, if Darhk screws with a major event in history, that affects history’s course. You know, imagine… I don’t know if your history is the same as mine, damn. Did you have two world wars? Right. So, imagine the bad guys had won the last one. Imagine how different your world would look right now.”

Winn nodded thoughtfully. “Like on Earth-X.”

“Essentially, yes. Or maybe you wouldn’t know what Christmas is and instead celebrate… Beebo Day. Whatever. So, we can only prevent that for so long... because time takes time to set. I know this is all very confusing…” She trailed off.

Lena bit her bottom lip and thoughtful wrinkles appeared on her forehead. “So you’re saying you can get my research tomorrow, although it will have taken me weeks to collect data and conduct experiments? But I can’t take too long because once time sets, Mr. Darhk will have broken history and the world as you know it might not exist anymore…?”

The Captain sighed in relief. “I should have explained it like that, exactly.”

“Okay. Then let’s meet up on Saturday in two weeks, that’s the… 11th. August 11… and we’ll see how far we got. Hopefully, then, we can already tell if this is going to work.”

The Captain agreed and grabbed her leather jacket from her chair. “Sounds great, lunch again? Or… lunch after all?” she asked and Lena broke into a genuine smile. 

“Lunch sounds good, we shouldn’t delay eating until Winn gets cranky at 5pm again.”

“Hey! Not fair!”

“Same place as today? Same time? Same people..?” Lena asked after quickly grinning at Winn.

“Good to know you’re counting on figuring things out with Kara”, Sara winked and agreed to the plan. 

She hugged the two scientists briefly and made her way to the door, now really looking forward to curling up next to Nyssa.


	28. Party in the U.S.A.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey, I know it's been a while and I'm sorry! I hope you're gonna have fun with this one :)

“What on earth and every other planet in the multiverse is going on?!”

The scene in front of her immediately froze for a split-second before returning to the chaos that Sara had walked in on and the Captain didn’t know which part of the things happening in front of her eyes was the most concerning. _ It’s not like you expected things to run smoothly, did you now…? _

“Captain! Heeey, you’re back! Wow, awesome and, dare I say, you’re looking gooooood!” Nate, dressed in nothing but some bright orange swim shorts, was sitting on an inflatable, screaming pink flamingo, pretty much in the middle of the galley, a blender full of what looked like margaritas in his hand.

“My offer to cut out your silver tongue still stands, Mr. Heywood”, Nyssa hissed at him. She apparently had found a way to attach her aerial silk to the metal pipes in the ceiling and was currently dangling upside down, her head about 5 feet from the ground, glaring at Nate, a dagger in her hand.

Sara was about to diffuse the tension when Ray, wearing a pair of skates and the fitting protectors for his knees, elbows and hands, rolled by, humming: “They see me rollin’, they hatin’”. 

When he realized he had just passed Sara, he spun around with something quite close to elegance, stating: “Oh, don’t you worry, Cap, she’s been threatening him for the better part of an hour now, no biggie. Hey, why do you look so serious? Join the party!” He gestured around while Sara stared at him, mouth slightly agape. 

Nate, his voice unnecessarily high, sounded enthusiastically: “Yeah, why so seeeeerious? Let’s put a smile on that face.”

When she had recollected her thoughts a second later, Sara’s voice was low and icy, a stark contrast to Nate’s. 

“What the hell is going on? Where is Amaya? She was supposed to be Captain and keep you from doing… whatever it is you are doing. Where’s the rest of the crew? And why are you all half naked for fucks sake?!”

“Half naked? We’re still half dressed if you ask me”, Ray shrugged with a grin and spun around to show off his Superman-briefs and white fine rib and Sara was sure her head was about to explode. 

“Ray!”

Sara’s shouting seemed to startle the man. 

“What? Oh, well, Amaya is… uh…. busy. Don’t tell Nate, he doesn’t have a heart of steel, even if he says so”, he whispered conspiratorially.

“Busy with fucking what, Ray? I swear to God, you better clear up what’s going on here right now.”

“You mean whom. And it’s Zari”, he said and turned to skate away. Sara grabbed his arm before he could leave.

“What?” she spat.

“Amaya is busy with f….ucking Zari. Now, if you’ll excuuuuse me, I need to prepare for my performance”, he sang and pirouetted before rolling out into the hallway.

_Per-_ Sara didn’t know whether to scream or just spend the night on Earth-38 and leave her crew to get their shit together by themselves.  _ Great.  _

“Nyssa, would you please come down and tell me what’s going on?” Sara sighed heavily, still glued to her spot.

“I actually like it upside down, Beloved, it’s a welcome change of perspective”, the assassin replied and Sara blinked and tilted her head in confusion. Her mind was busy trying to comprehend what was happening but she felt like it had just short-circuited, the situation was so odd she simply did not find a possible explanation for any of it.

“For example, I am quite certain you cannot see Mr. Rory from where you’re standing, I however, can”, Nyssa smiled widely and gestured for Sara to come closer. 

The Captain was currently quite certain she had been portaled onto another earth or had fallen asleep in the lab and was therefore dreaming. 

“Yeah, Sara, look at that, he’s really an artist”, Nate commented from his flamingo and put on some sunglasses.

When Sara stepped around the pink inflatable monster, she wasn’t sure what she was looking at at first. A split-second later, she realized that the little sand hill next to it was, in fact, not a hill at all. It was a very much alive Mick, who grinned from one ear to the other, covered in brown and yellow bodypaint. 

“Hi”, he chuckled. 

And Sara lost it.

“Gideon,  _ what the fuck is going on _ ?!” She stumbled a few steps back, her hand in her hair as if to pull it out in desperation. When Gideon didn’t answer, Sara spun around and ran back out into the hallway, in the direction of the bridge and the central AI console. Passing Zari’s quarters, the Captain briefly considered barging in, but decided against it. From outside the door, she could tell “Amaya is busy” was an accurate description of the situation. And Sara had seen too much of her team members already, she didn’t need another image in her head, although it would definitely be more pleasant than Mick covered in bodypaint.

With all of the crazy she had just witnessed, Sara felt as if her head was starting to spin as well, a small part of her brain telling her to just let go and have some fun, live a little. The minimal amount of clothes on Nyssa’s body while she was moving around in the air had certainly caused some distraction… Hadn’t she just told Lena and Winn she wanted to be distracted..?

Sara shook her head firmly.  _ Snap out of it, Lance. _

“Gideon!”

She reached the console and, after still not receiving any confirmation of Gideon, she opened the hatch on the bottom of it. Everything looked good, apart from one cable being unplugged. With a deep intake of breath, hoping not to be electrocuted on the spot, Sara plugged the cable into the connector.

“Good evening, Captain Lance, and thank you - for giving me my voice back.”

Sara sighed in relief. “Gideon, girl, it’s good to hear it. What the hells is going on here?”

“It appears the ventilation systems are compromised. There is a hallucinogenic substance in the air, elevating the mood, causing a lack of self-control, rise of body temperature and spikes in the release of dopamine and testosterone, leading to an increase in sexual lust and creativity.”

That made a lot of sense. Sara groaned. “Yeah, that explains the team’s behaviour. How do we stop it? Can you access the ventilation system?” 

“I’m afraid I cannot. You will have to perform a manual system’s override, Captain.”

Sara nodded and pursed her lips. “Can I protect my own brain while I’m doing that? Should I get something to cover my face?”

“Negative”, Gideon answered. “You already have inhaled enough of the substance to get affected. Since it appears to be a slow-working hallucinogen, you might start experiencing its effects but you will have enough time to fix the ventilation system and limit the drug’s impact on your body.”

“Okay. Who unplugged you?”

Gideon’s holographic head disappeared and was replaced with an image of one of the security cameras on the bridge. 

It showed how five people stole onto the bridge in an exaggeratedly sneaky manner. They tried and failed to communicate via tactical gestures. At one point, one of the taller persons seemed to mime a flight controller, which caused two of the other people to giggle and sit down on the floor.

The Captain groaned in exasperation. It turned out to have been a team effort, which also explained why they didn’t disable security systems - or at least Gideon - completely. They just didn’t want her to scold them anymore.

“At least Nyssa didn’t support this behavior”, Sara sighed. 

Gideon reappeared and nodded. “She was attempting to fix her fabric to the galley ceiling at that moment.”

“Of course she was. The sneaking would’ve gone better if she had been with them. Anyway, can you talk me through fixing the ventilation system? I’m getting a little light-headed here.”

Gideon agreed and Sara went to work down in the machine room.

 

20 minutes later, Sara looked at her greasy fingers with annoyance. They hadn’t been able to fix the system from either inside the system itself or the machine room, and Gideon had run a diagnostic and pinpointed the location of the damage to a vent above the Waverider’s right wing. Sara had climbed up into the shaft and crawled through the metal tunnels until she had reached the outer vent. It was dusty and hot up there and although she had learned to master almost all of her fears, after being trapped in the darkness of death for over a year, Sara still did not feel comfortable in tight and dark spaces. Sara had been able to pry the individual panels of the vent open by hand and had seen a few screws sticking out on the outside, but hadn’t been able to reach them. Those loose screws had led to the panels not opening properly, which in the end had caused a shut-down of the whole ventilation system. Cursing, Sara had crawled all the way back and now took a second to organize her thoughts, as she was standing back in the machine room. 

“Screw it”, she muttered under her breath and let out a huff. She got better at the puns. She wiped her hands with the same cloth Ava Sharpe had used to clean hers with back in 1398. How long ago had that been? Days? Weeks?  _ Frickin’ time travel. _

“Wow, why is it so hot on this ship?! This is crazy!” Sara complained loudly to no one specific and shrugged off her leather jacket. She then shook her feet to lose her boots and bent over to take off her socks as well and roll up her jeans’ pants. There, this was much better. Barefoot, she walked down the hallway to the cargo bay. Gideon’s advice to put her shoes back on for safety reasons was ignored for good measure.

The Captain opened the cargo bay door, inhaled the fresh air and took a minute to watch the waves spill onto the beach they had landed the ship on. It was a peaceful, quiet evening outside the Waverider. The lighting was dimming slowly, there would be a nice sunset in about an hour, Sara guessed. She was startled, when Gideon spoke up.

“Captain Lance, I’m afraid you will have to fix the ventilation system sooner rather than later. It appears Dr. Palmer convinced some team members to start a karaoke show.”

Sara shook her head to get back into the task. She didn’t have the luxury to stare at the calm sea when her whole team was high on hallucinogens. Sure enough, in that moment, music started to blare through the ship’s speakers and the assassin jumped and groaned in annoyance. 

“Gideon, seal the ship regarding to sounds, we’re quite far from the next city but we don’t need some curious neighbor or the police to join our beach party. And make sure I can still hear you outside.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Sara jumped down from the doorway, her feet landed in the nice and soft sand and she sighed when she felt her toes sink in, wishing for a week off. Not dwelling on the thought of vacation and cocktails on the beach, she made her way around the ship and climbed up the side onto the wing to reach the ventilation system. It only took her a second to know that the screws had been tampered with.

_ Wow, nice catch, Sherlock - how else would a gaseous drug get into our ship..? _

She shook her head at herself and cursed again. This thing had already gotten into her system. Sara realized she was currently seated on one of the Waverider’s metal wings while trying to fix a mechanical issue with bare feet and her hair open, blowing in the soft wind. And the fact that it didn’t seem weird or irresponsible to her made her think the drug was working well.

“Gid, when I fasten these panels, will you be able to restart the systems?”

“Yes, Captain”, came again.

“Good. Then let’s get this done.” Sara started fixing the screws. _ I should start carrying around a hair tie. _ “How’s the team?”

The AI updated her in her typical informative manner. “Mr. Rory fell asleep under the kitchen table after eating an entire bucket of chicken wings, Ms. Tomaz and Ms. Jiwe have joined Mr. Palmer’s  karaoke team and Mr. Heywood and Ms. Raatko are currently in the lead.”

Sara’s head shot up. “Nyssa is singing karaoke songs?!”

“Indeed. And she appears to know all the words to Madonna’s 1990 hit Vogue”, Gideon replied.

“No… You’re kidding me.” Sara bit back her laughter. 

“I am not. Do you wish to listen in, Captain?”

Sara now had tears in her eyes from fighting her emotions over the fact that Nyssa, her Nyssa, one of the deadliest people in the world, the person who had Winn shaking in fear though on another earth, was singing 90s music with her team. She didn’t know whether to be amused or touched or sad that she was out here missing it. With a little hiccup, she chuckled: “God, I’m so tempted right now, but I really need to finish this. Record it for me?”

“Of course.”

Humming to herself, Sara finished fastening the rest of the screws and pushed all the panels into the same direction.

A few minutes later, she grinned at her work. “Okay, girl, show me what you got”, she said and Gideon restarted the ventilation. The individual panels moved up and down and opened completely, and with it all the other vents. 

“Yes! Awesome. Get as much clear air inside as possible, I can tell that it helps, I’m feeling better out here.”

“Unfortunately we will have to assume that the team’s experienced effects will only cease over the next 5-8 hours regarding the long exposure of the substance which I have not been able to identify, yet.”

Sara nodded and slid down the wing. “Okay. Wow, I really should wear boots the next time I fix shit, I feel less badass with bare feet”, she joked.

 

Unfortunately, the genre had changed from 90’s dance-pop to 00’ dance-pop when Sara walked back into the galley and additionally, Nyssa was nowhere to be seen.

“So I put my haaaaands up, they’re playin’ my song -” 

Nate had climbed down from the giant flamingo and together with Ray, he danced along to the song blasting through every single speaker on the ship. Right now, he was shaking his hips in a weird attempt to belly dance, while waving his hands over his head. Sara clenched her jaw so hard to prevent herself from screaming that for a second, she got worried about her teeth.  _ Would my teeth breaking from trying to be nice to my crew be covered by my health insurance? _

Ray at that moment slid across the galley floor on his knee protectors and shouted: “Party in the USAAAAAAAA!” from the top of his lungs.

Mick was still asleep under the table, not even startled by the incredible volume of the music. Amaya and Zari chilled in chairs facing each other, each one of them holding a bottle of beer, wearing shorts and a loose shirt, a content expression on their faces. Amaya was also wearing her old pirate hat. 

Sara stomped over to them and planted herself in front of Amaya, arms akimbo.

“Listen, you two, I’m very happy you had fun, but Amaya, you had a fricking job to do. This mess-” she gestured around, “-this mess is yours. And I just had a really long day and I cannot deal with this fucking noise!!” The last two words she shouted over the music, exhaustion making her even angrier than she normally would have been.

“Wow, Sara, you need to chill. Go get laid yourself”, Zari suggested, pupils blown.

“Get - what the fuck, Zari? I get it, you’re high, but that is absolutely none of your damn business.”

“High? I’m not, I mean I definitely was some minutes ago but that wore off, unfortunately”, she winked at Amaya, who in return cocked an eyebrow and smirked almost devilishly. 

“Miss me already…?” she asked suggestively, only barely louder than the music, and Zari’s nostrils flared at her sharp intake of breath. The hacker briefly wetted her bottom lip before she breathed an inaudible affirmation.

Sara stared at her friends and, only loud enough for the two women to hear, called: “Woah, tone it down a notch, I really don’t want drama between you guys and Nate, especially not while you’re all high and reckless, Jesus.”

Zari didn’t even show any reaction, her eyes were glued to Amaya’s lips, who was slowly bending forward in her chair, while taking the hat off her head. Both women’s totems started glowing and Sara was watching the chaos unfold without being able to stop it. It looked almost surreal, the way that while the two of them were getting up from their chairs, the glowing started to grow between the two women until the red and blue light blended into a soft purple, and wind rose around them until Sara felt like she was in the middle of a storm.  _ Uh oh. _ Nate and Ray were distracted from their singing and the last tunes of the karaoke version of Party in the U.S.A. were slowly drowned by roaring winds and different animal sounds.  _ Oh God. _ Sara felt like she was definitely way too close to the source of power but she was just as transfixed as Ray and Nate. The cupboard-doors rattled, straws and paper streamers were whirling around and Nyssa’s aerial-silk was flapping in the wind.  _ Think, Sara, fuck.  _ She didn’t even want to know where this could lead. And how she definitely did not want to witness that in their kitchen. It took every ounce of willpower for her to break free from the totems’ hypnotic spell. She reached over to Amaya and placed her hand on her shoulder. For a split-second, it felt like all the air was rapidly being sucked out of Sara and suddenly, it was silent. 

Sara stared at Amaya, who stared into Zari’s eyes, both of them breathing heavily. 

“Wooooow, that was awesome!” Nate applauded and Ray joined his enthusiasm, snapping everyone out of their almost hypnotised state.

Sara shook her head, a shiver running down her spine, and leaned over to her friend. “Take a room. Please”, she whispered pleadingly. Amaya tore her gaze away from Zari and grinned at Sara, as she lifted her arm and placed the pirate hat on her blonde head. 

“Aye, there you go, Captain, back to being the Captain. I’ve got other things to take care of.” Then, she grabbed Zari’s hand and pulled her with her, leaving Sara, Nate, Ray and Mick behind.

“Sorry boys, show’s over”, Sara sounded, as the two women left the galley. “It’s bedtime now, I’ve had a very long day and you should really go to sleep.”

Ray and Nate pouted and shared a look. “But it’s not even that late yet…” 

Sara shook her head, not allowing any objection. “Ray, please skate over to your room and Nate, you need to take care of Mick, I’m not touching him like this.”

“Why do I have to touch him?!” Nate asked indignantly, while Ray was already following Sara’s order and waving them goodnight, rolling out of the galley. “He can just stay under the table!”

Sara closed her eyes and lifted her hand to silence him. “You know what? I don’t care, Nate, please just go to bed. I can’t deal with this anymore, I need to find Nyssa and make sure she’s okay. You do whatever you want.”

She straightened her back and followed Ray out into the hallway, on her way grabbing a half-full bottle of scotch from the ground.

 

“Hey, Nys, are y- oh shit!” Sara turned on her heel right after walking into her quarters. Fittingly, the metal doors closed in front of her face now. 

“Beloved.” Nyssa’s voice was smooth as velvet, her low tone causing a shiver to trickle down Sara’s spine. The Captain heard her blood pulsing in her ears and her brain was rapidly trying to work out the situation. Still staring at the closed door in front of her, she felt the tiny hair on her arms and neck rise with the goosebumps spreading on her skin.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Sara had figured that much. She willed her breathing to slow down and with it her heartbeat. After taking another three seconds to recollect herself, she slowly turned around to the brunette assassin. She smiled.

“Oh, I can see that…”, she stated and slowly walked over to the bed Nyssa was situated on. “Are you cold, or happy to see me?” she quipped and Nyssa’s face split into a beautiful, radiant smile, one without care or inhibitions or masks.

“Mostly the latter. A little bit of the former, too, but I’m sure you can help with that”, she hinted and cocked an eyebrow at Sara, who did the best she could to not jump Nyssa’s bones at that exact moment. Instead, she placed the bottle of scotch on the ground next to the bed.

“I guess some clothes and a blanket might help you, darling”, Sara then winked and tried to keep a casual tone.

Nyssa pursed her lips, the same devilish twinkle in her eyes that Amaya had showed before and Sara swallowed hard. Oh this was not good. Or too good.

“I think your body would suffice, my love. Preferably naked. But really, I am adaptable, so you could, you know, leave your hat on”, she suggested with a glance at the pirate hat Amaya had just placed on Sara’s head. Sara took off the hat in under a second and shook her head at her own thoughts. Since when was she trying her best  _ not _ to get laid? And by a beautiful, gloriously naked, very enthusiastic girlfriend, no less. 

Sara sighed deeply and threw the hat onto the chair in the corner of the room. Then, she sat down on the edge of the bed. She reached over for Nyssa’s hands and took them into her own.

“Nys, I know you’re horny and believe me, I love that, but you’re also very high and not in control of your body or mind at the moment.”

The assassin nodded and smiled. “Yes, that feels refreshingly light. I can only recommend it. I bet your lips taste like vanilla right now, I can smell scotch on your breath and I really… would love… “ 

She moved her face closer to Sara’s and the Captain closed her eyes for a second before she whispered: “Nyssa, I can’t.”

“Why not”, came a whisper back.

“Because as soon as I kiss you, I won’t be able to stop”, Sara explained and Nyssa chuckled in response.

“I’m counting on that, you’re wearing way too many clothes, Love.”

Sara’s breath hitched in her throat and she pulled away from the spell-like proximity to the brunette. Her scent lingered in the Captain’s space, her cold fingertips brushed against Sara’s knuckles softly and it would be easy, oh so easy to just let go and enjoy this side of Nyssa.  _ Don’t. _

“I won’t touch you tonight, no matter how much I want to. And I do want to, trust me. And I will, tomorrow, if you still want me to then. But not like this. You’re high, we don’t even know on what exactly, and I’m not gonna take advantage of that, it would be wrong.”

The pout that showed on Nyssa’s face was probably the most adorable thing Sara had ever seen, and she felt her heart swell with love, spreading out through her body and filling up her face with a genuine, warm smile. This was better. It was a lot easier to resist temptations if her instinct was to tuck Nyssa into bed rather than to let her mouth explore every inch of the brunette’s body…

“You’re cute. And that face is not gonna change my mind”, she laughed softly. “Come on, let’s get you something to wear and you sleep off that high, hm?”

“But-”

“Uh uh, no but. You know how important consent is and you are in no state to give me consent, so that’s a no. I’m not high, I’m not drunk, I’m not gonna take advantage of you, period.”

Nyssa huffed and pulled Sara’s blanket around herself. She accepted her defeat with an eyeroll and the promise to get back to that topic. She refused to put on clothes, though, complaining that it was “wayyyy too warm under the blanket” and instead asked:

“Come hold me?”

Sara sighed as exhaustion washed over her and she quickly stripped down to her underwear before crawling up under the sheets behind Nyssa. 

“Yes, yes, I would love to.” She wrapped her arms around the warm body and immediately felt peace settling in her heart.

“What’s that sticky stuff on your thigh..?” Nyssa’s tone was curious, and slightly amused.

Sara groaned. “Get your head out of the gutter, woman. It’s glue. I’ll explain that tomorrow. After a shower. Now shush, you should be sleeping.”

“Mh, okay. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Nyssa, goodnight”, Sara smiled into the brunette’s hair.


End file.
